More than 1.3 million Canadians watched the inauguration of Barack Obama as U.S. president on television Tuesday, and many are still feeling thrilled by the spectacle.
Maureen Harwood had hoped to be in Washington D.C. in person, but didn't make it, so she watched from her home in North Vancouver.
The B.C.-based American spent the following day memorizing Obama's speech.
"'...The charter expand by the blood of generations....' You can't put this aside! I think it's beautiful and brilliant. This is the first time in my life, I've been proud of my country," she said, while reading it aloud.
Glyn Lewis did make it to Washington.
The co-founder of Canadians for Obama, Lewis spent a year helping the Obama campaign.
In a phone interview, he said that not only did he see the inauguration, but was able to see Obama's family during Sunday's ceremonies and prayers.
"The entire time I was pinching myself, wondering why me? Barack Obama, the next President of the United States, is coming down the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial," he said. "I'm still recovering -- there were galas, I moved on to more galas, there were club parties..."
But others are not so starry-eyed, and are waiting to see what the new president will do.
There are fears that the U.S. lumber coalition that has fought Canada in the past will seize the opportunity to try to get the current softwood deal scrapped by the Obama administration.
At the Gorman Brothers sawmill in Westbank, the logs keep tumbling in. Despite the economic downturn, 320 workers carry on. The way the company puts it: they're biding their time.
"What we're doing right now is we're hunkering down," said Nick Arkle of Gorman Brothers.
The company is making a lot of boards but not a lot of money. American imports once made up over 85 per cent of the business here Now that number is down to about 50 per cent. There is some hope that Barack Obama can help bring some of that back.
"There's certainly an optimism. There's a hope that if investor confidence can be improved and certainly the new president seems to be instilling that kind of confidence in people. That can only be good for the forest industry," said Arkle.
Rick Jeffery of the Coast Forest Products Association would like to gain the notice of the new U.S. government.
"What we can do as Canada and as British Columbia is to make sure that Obama's administration, the department of commerce, are fully aware of what were doing why were doing it, and how it is consistent with the softwood lumber agreement..., and I think if we do that will be no basis for elimination of the treaty," he said.
All we know is we will come out of it at some point. This industry will turn around, there will be a demand for lumber. Housing will start to pick up again but whether that's going to be late 2009 or early mid 2010, I won't even predict."
With reports from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat and St. John Alexander.
