I write this just after midnight in the wee hours of Nov. 5. I must admit, I was riveted by the American elections. Yes, I am a Canadian, and yes, I did vote in our own elections, but the drama of the U.S. elections kept me going back for more.

I hoped that women would not be fooled into thinking that just because a politician is a woman that she might actually care about women’s issues and women’s rights. I watched as Barack Obama tried to get people to move past his name, his colour and the Muslim father he never knew. Slanderous e-mails about him kept finding their way into my inbox, hearsay and innuendo all directed specifically to the Jewish community and designed to produce fear.  And yet, unbelievably, a black man rose to the presidency of the very country that would have enslaved him just a few decades ago.

In his concession speech, John McCain was the model of civility, grace and all the best that America stands for. And Obama held forth an inspiring promise of hope, peace and prosperity. They both spoke like true menschen. It was a political moment from which the leaders of many other countries could learn.

I know what it’s like to have people judge you not by your accomplishments, but by some circumstance of your birth: in his case his colour, in mine my gender. I know what it’s like to have people who are uncomfortable with your position tell you that so freely, and let you know that if it just wasn’t for this one little “flaw,” you’d be great at what you do. I know what it’s like to have people smile at you but behind your back pass you over for someone less qualified. I know what it’s like to have opportunities denied to you because people are still unable to see beyond a body to a human being – neither white nor black, male nor female, gay nor straight, young nor old, just human.

As the child of working class parents and the first in my extended family to attend a private university, I know what it means to try to “rise above” and then be castigated for being an elitist. I know what it means to try harder than other people have to just to get what they’ve received so easily. And I’ve learned a lot from Obama’s campaign about having a respectful dialogue with people you disagree with.

I feel blessed to be living in this historic time. My university-age son in Boston, a dual citizen who is not usually interested in politics, was moved to vote, and he called me with deeply felt emotion when he stepped out of the voting booth. His Facebook profile then said, “I can one day tell my children that I voted in the most historic election of my lifetime.”

Now that the American hoopla is over, the hard work begins, and we can go back to paying attention to Canadian politics. We’re so lucky in Canada that we long ago learned to celebrate our diversity and to elect officials and governments that reflect the full mosaic of Canadian life.

Tonight, another great nation demonstrated that we are capable of seeing one another as simply human.