The United States will have a new leader Wednesday with the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president.
Some Americans living north of the border are excited for the new chapter but that excitement also comes with concern over what Trump is leaving behind.
The Biden Harris sign is back on Lindsay Malloy’s front lawn. The American Democrat has brought it back out for inauguration day.
“It means finally some light at the end of the tunnel, like a bit of hope, and just being able to start to move on and heal from what the last four years have been,” said Malloy, a U.S. citizen living in Canada.
After months of following the election and casting her vote, Malloy says she’ll be watching Joe Biden become the new U.S. president Wednesday.
“I am nervous, I think I would have been nervous anyway but then after Jan. 6, I’m genuinely fearful. I have friends there, colleagues there, in (Washington) D.C. who say it looks like a war zone right now,” said Malloy.
“I’m honestly not expecting very much noise, you might have small sporadic protests here and there,” said Tim MacNeill, Ontario Tech University Political Science Associate Professor.
MacNeill will be paying extra close attention to inauguration day. He says Biden has some challenges taking over power from Trump and that includes more than policy.
“He’s got to win-over the American people and that’s not going to be easy because that population is so divided. However, like I said before, every Trump supporter is not the type of person that would be storming the Capitol building,” said MacNeill.
Millions of people around the world are expected to tune in to see the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States Wednesday.
While it will be a different ceremony because of the pandemic, many are hoping they don’t see anything like what happened on Capitol Hill earlier this month.
As for Malloy, she says even though she can’t be south of the border for it, she plans on connecting with friends and family. Despite the monumental day, the mother of two says the U.S. has a lot of work to do.
“I wouldn’t say I was extremely happy just given that so many people went to the polls and said all the things that happened in the last four years, all the things Trump said and did, 70 million people still said ‘that’s my guy’,” Malloy said.
Joe Biden will be sworn in as president Wednesday afternoon.