What a night it was. What a year it has been. With uncanny precision, the stars aligned and Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. CNN's official call came almost exactly at the stroke of midnight in Nova Scotia. Obama will take office in 2009, one hundred years after the founding of the NAACP. What beautiful symmetry.

They say Obama's victory is a watershed event, one of those moments forever remembered in sharp detail - where you were and what you were doing. I've no doubt that's true. When the official call came, I was hunched at my desk watching Wolf Blitzer on Windows Media Center and obsessively refreshing CNN's electoral map, waiting for a few more states to turn blue.

But the memories that will linger came a few hours earlier. I love politics because of my father. I can recall clearly each election night, Canadian and American, from 1988 to 2006. Most were spent cheerfully trading predictions and commentary in the TV room downstairs, drowning out Dan Rather or Peter Mansbridge with our homespun punditry.

Last night, my brother and I smuggled bags of junk food and takeout chicken wings into Dad's hospital room. We huddled around his bed, and laid out our feast on a rolling tray table. We squinted at the tiny wall-mounted television while early returns were announced. The familiar election night banter resumed, though Dad was quieter this year.

He was awake long enough to see Pennsylvania and Ohio go blue. He knew the importance of those states, and seemed moved by the historic event unfolding. He drifted into sleep some time after that. My brother and I tidied up and left quietly, content to watch the finish at home. In one form or another, the St.Amand election night tradition was kept alive.

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Yesterday I posted an election prediction. Here's how I did:

(Click map for details)