As we come down from our collective high after watching Barack Obama become the 44th president of the United States yesterday, we can't help but believe the world is changed for the better somehow.

It’s difficult to say exactly what the change is, how it happened or why it's good, but Obama represents the kind of change we've been waiting for.

After all, only two days ago it seemed like George W. Bush had always been the president of the United States — or at least since before most current university students were conscious of American politics.

Eight years ago, when Bush was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2001, Canada’s current undergraduate student population was somewhere between playing outside during recess at elementary school and working their first  part-time job during high school.

Our generation’s fascination with the characters and decisions of the American government undoubtedly began Sept. 11, 2001.

The pictures and videos from that morning have been etched onto our memories forever and it seems as though the constant barrage of media hasn’t stopped since.

Thanks to Bush, we’ve known how terrifying, dramatic and sometimes hilarious American politics can become.

None of us will ever forget the “War on Terror,” “Shock and Awe,” or Bush’s frequent slips of the tongue.

For the past eight years we’ve felt superior to our American neighbours because although Canada’s political leaders weren’t perfect, at least they never uttered the word “misunderestimation” in public.

But that doesn’t mean we liked or were actually interested in any of Canada’s most recent prime ministers.

None of them have captured the attention of Canada’s youth because they didn’t speak to our issues or use the same tools of communication we use.

But when Obama came into the picture Canadians, young Canadians especially, developed a serious case of Obama envy.

Obama’s was the first campaign that took advantage of the power of the Internet.

It included aggressive mini-campaigns on social networks such as MySpace, YouTube and Facebook, and hundreds of thousands of mostly young people “tweeted” about Obama on Twitter every day.

Combined with the mainstream news updates in newspapers and on television and radio, it was a campaign without borders and Obama won Canadians over as much as he did Americans.

As we cast our ballots in the latest federal election on Oct. 14 (if we cast them at all), many of us probably would have gladly swapped our vote for one in the American election a few weeks later just to help Obama reach the White House.

It turned out he didn’t need our help, so we continued to watch from across the border with growing admiration.

And although Canadians are worried Obama will throw out the North American Free Trade Agreement, fail to support Canadian troops in Afghanistan and, most importantly, be unable to fix the United States’ failed economy, it’s no secret that we love and trust Obama.

In a recent survey done for the CBC, more than 80 per cent of Canadians said they approve of Obama’s performance so far and almost half the country feels disappointed with our leadership options in comparison with Obama’s style and charisma.

Young Canadians are even more dissatisfied with our leaders than the general population. It’s no surprise, considering we’ve never had a youthful, charming celebrity leader of our own.

The closest Canada has come was Pierre Trudeau, when he captured the attention of our parents’ generation in the late 1960s and early ’70s with Trudeaumania.

While there are rumours of Justin Trudeau following in his father’s footsteps one day, it’s probably still a long way away.

So until we get a young, magnetic leader of our own – no matter what the colour of his or her skin is – Canada’s youth will continue to idolize Obama and be hopeful for the change he represents in our society.

We don’t know what those changes will be yet, but so far he’s done a fine job getting North American youth interested in politics again and that bodes very well for our future.