Neil Macdonald covered Barack Obama's first presidential campaign and was in Chicago's Grant Park when he accepted the presidency on election night, 2008. The American president's speech to the House of Commons will inevitably be described as historic, because Canadians still really love Barack Obama. Anyway, Barack Obama's address to Parliament was pleasurable enough, and bubbling with gravitas, even if the reverse television shot kept actually showing the script on his Teleprompter. President Barack Obama (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)The risks of nuanceIt's actually tempting to say Obama doesn't make historic speeches, that he only sounds historic, and that he certainly isn't a JFK or an FDR. There's no knowing, obviously, but as Barack Obama's political summer ends, and he walks offstage with all that grey hair, it'd be great to ask him, just once.

Source: CBC News June 30, 2016 09:00 UTC