Tuesday night, sometime around 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, world history was etched on the walls of time with a bold marker.

The full gravity of what transpired in the United States of America will only be fully understood in the coming decades, when its ripples take full effect. What happened was not only groundbreaking and historic – it was, quite frankly, exciting in the best of ways.

A nation marred by generations of racism towards its African-American population, one where colour still divides some neighbourhoods, elected a black man as commander-in-chief. Plain and simple, it feels as if some serious healing is taking place.

Here in Canada we need only tip our hats, not to America, but to the American people. After eight long, arduous, almost nightmarish years of President George W. Bush, they simply said ‘enough’ and showed the entire world democracy is still a positive word and that power is still wielded by the people.

They took their own tattered international image, picked it up off the ground, dusted it off as if to say ‘We’re still willing to change, we’re still ready to lead.’

As you read this column, it’s been close to 24 hours since Barack Hussein Obama, a half-white, half-black man from humble roots and a single mother, was elected. I’m sure every pundit under the sun has weighed in on just how remarkable this American election was – countless adjectives and soliloquies of race relations and grassroots politics.

But I’m going to talk about one demographic, wax poetic about a singular energy, which, according to exit polls taken the day of the election, was the main driving force for Obama.

Voters ages 18-29 made up close to 20 per cent of the estimated 113 million who cast their ballot. By far they voted strongly for the Democratic candidate, just over 66 per cent in favour. The fact they voted at all is nothing less than remarkable. Generation Y, Echo Boomers, Millennials – call them what you want – they valiantly stood in three hour-plus lineups patiently waiting for their right, some of them the first time in their life, to vote.

For the first time in North American history, they quite possibly swung a major election towards their liking. They voted more than the ‘65 and over’ demographic, who in turn voted 53 per cent overall in favour of Republican John McCain.

Past elections in America, and here in Canada, have been dismal for getting young voters to the polls. Take the recent shame of an election in Canada, which attracted the lowest turnout in Canadian history. The youth vote was dismal, apathetic, close to a 10-per-cent drop from 2006.

Why? Many reasons, the first and foremost likely being there was no ‘Obama’ running. But now is not the time to dwell on the negative.

The American youth turned out in droves, in waves towards the polls on Nov. 4. The positives of this experience should excite and energize Canada’s youth, because as we’ve now seen, when we want to, we can be a political force.

Around 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, my sister, age 19, sent me a text that simply read “So exciting, this is unreal.” She was up at Felicita’s on the University of Victoria campus – a madhouse of jubilation towards Obama. It was the truth: unreal was the perfect word for Tuesday night’s results.

But now it’s reality, for in her short life – and mine at 26 – we’ve never witnessed something like this. We saw 9/11, we’re suffering through an economic crisis and a Middle East conflict with no end in sight. But I bet you if you sit us down in 50 years and ask us about the first days of the 21st century – this will be foremost.

As I grow older I’ve gained a small bit of perspective. I don’t know what the future holds for America, for Obama, and for the rest of the world. But I hope this is the start of something grand and progressive.

I do know one thing for sure. For as long as I live I will never forget the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, when an impossible candidate took the stage in Chicago, Ill. and showed the whole world just how remarkable life can be at times.

Patrick Blennerhassett writes for the Victoria News.

patrickb@vicnews.com