SYDNEY, N.S. — After watching Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration, Parker Donham went for a celebratory adult beverage at a local Cape Breton brewery.
The dual citizenship-holding and longtime Democratic Party supporter admits Biden was not his first choice as the party’s presidential nominee but said he now believes the new president is the right man at the right time for the job.
“I think Biden, while he wasn’t my choice to be the nominee for the Democrats, is perfect for the position right now, perfect for the time,” said Donham, a born and raised American who has lived in Cape Breton for the better part of 50 years.
“He has a real knack for projecting empathy and it’s empathy that comes from his own tragic suffering and I think people recognize that as genuine. He’s a very calming personality.”
The veteran political blogger, communications specialist and award-winning journalist, who worked on Senator Eugene McCarty’s 1968 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, said he is sensing that the transition of power has spawned a widespread feeling of relief.
“My phone has been blowing up for the past few hours with texts and messages from Canadian and American friends who are very, very relieved – Biden gave a humdinger of a speech and everybody can now let out a big sigh of relief,” he said, shortly after the conclusion of Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony that also saw Kamala Harris sworn in as the United States’ first female vice president
“I think the contrast between today and two weeks ago really illustrates that the United States is a very resilient country. It has all kinds of problems — serious, deeply-embedded problems — but it is also a very resilient place. It has faced tremendous crises in the past and has come through them and I think the same will happen with the multiple crises it is facing right now.”
Cape Breton University political science professor Jim Guy, who studied at two American universities and has been closely following politics south of the border ever since, also expressed relief at Wednesday’s peaceful transition of power. He even went so far as to call it a historic day. Guy said what happens in the United States has significant impacts here in Canada.
“We are students of American politics here in Canada,” he said.
“We are probably the best observers of American politics in all of the world because we have so much at stake with what the U.S. does. Our trade relationship is very important to our economy so we need to be knowledgeable and savvy about how they behave. If their economy goes down, then our economy goes down.”
Guy also said he thought Biden offered up a responsible and applaudable inauguration address.
“He was presidential, he wasn’t vindictive and he wasn’t in any way threatening to undo anything the previous president had done,” he said.
“He was a gentleman. He is a gentleman. He has real human values, so I wasn’t surprised that he acted out his own prophecy which is that of a good person.”
David Jala is a political reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
