The return of hope...

Hope springs eternal... Faith, hope and charity... The great black hope...

There is a word that seems to be gaining prominence in the current electoral struggles in the US - hope. It is a word that has been long absent from the lexicon of politicians on both sides of the border. In Canada it has not been heard since the early days of Pierre Elliot Trudeau. In the US it disappeared after the deaths of JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King.

It has been as if we all abandoned hope and tried to replace it with simple greed mixed with fear. In Canada we began to obsess about government debt and deficit spending. Our American cousins first followed suit and then shifted to fear after 9/11.

Now we seem jaded and cynical. We have put our politicians on a short leash where they continue to snipe at each other like the pack of mangy mongrels that they are while south of us, an emotionally exhausted and disgruntled American public has been revived by the possibility of hope as a political them for the first time in this new century.

Hope is not yet dominant but it is gaining ground as was made clear by the results of yesterday's primaries. People desperately want to believe in the American Dream but that is only possible when their leaders are able to light the way ahead, to illuminate the darkness of these times and to overcome the fear and desperation that eats at the Heartland. Barack Obama represents hope and the people of America are listening to him. He may not win the Democratic nomination but he has changed the conversation. Hilary Clinton is faced with an enormous challenge. She has to diffuse the charismatic energy of Obama but she must not crush the hope that he has ignited in the people she wants to lead.