During a CBC Radio interview yesterday, I predicted a good night for the Democrats in the United States midterm elections — with the possibility of a great one.

What happened was the biggest rout of an incumbent party since 2006, when the Iraq War doomed George W. Bush’s Republican Party. It might turn out to be an even bigger win, especially in the semi-tropical conservative heartland known as the Sun Belt, where the results seem like nothing less than a political revolution.

For Canadians, this is likely good news — with Democrats now in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the historical friendship between the U.S. and Canada may return to a firmer footing. In at least one race — Maine, where longtime Republican senator Susan Collins was defeated by Democrat Troy Jackson — the Canada-U.S. trade war was a major campaign issue.

One former U.S. ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman, is already calling on Democrats to begin a reconciliation process with Canada.

The landscape moves left

In terms of what happened stateside, let’s start with Ohio, where I’ve lived since moving here from Montréal shortly before the 2024 presidential election. Donald Trump won Ohio by 11 points that year. A hotly contested battleground in the early 2000s, the Buckeye State, which has close economic ties with Canada, seemed safely Republican as recently as six months ago.

But last night, all the usual Democratic voters, including younger people, professionals, racialized........

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