I've sat in my office, for a number of days now watching with baited breath the US election. Some people, including myself, have asked why? You're Canadian, why are you so invested in this? I'm not the smarted person, but I thought about this, and here's my thoughts. (Thread)

1. Most importantly (To me) is my friends, family and co-workers to the south. Working in infosec, I have (to a Canadian) an abnormal number of friends in the US, and a handful of Family. To some of them, this election really could be life or death. This scares me.

(Next is in no particular order)

2. Travel: My family loves to travel, especially to the US. Before corona, I was becoming more and more apprehensive on travel to the US. Now, my hope to visit more US cities is all but lost, at least for a good while.

3. My future: I am a lucky Canadian. I've worked for amazing companies that helped my retirement. We put away some of money into a retirement plan. Except, this is partly backed by US stocks. I'm still "young" and can tolerate a few years of uncertainty. But others, cant.

4. Trade: The US as of late has put a lot of emphasis on tariffs. Some raw materials I could really use to fix some gear I have has 103% tariff. Yes, more then DOUBLE the price, just to get it into Canada. US and Canada is so tied together, these are really just dumb.

5. Economy: In Canada, when talking about stocks, money and business, the value of our dollar is typically compared to the US dollar. Of course, this is also tied directly to trade, the stocks and how well Canada and the US are doing. But damn, a roller-coaster for sure.

I may not live in the US, I can't vote there, but I definitely have some skin on my teeth that is directly affected. From people I love, to directly impacting my current and future self.

So, I'll go back to doom scrolling, watching those numbers and hoping for the best.