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Many Canadians will be revelling in President Barack Obama’s inauguration next Monday. Polls showed that Canadians overwhelmingly supported President Obama’s re-election. However, despite such enthusiasm, Obama’s re-election coupled with a divided Congress poses real risks to Canada’s prosperity.

To understand why, consider a recently released collection of essays by Canadian and American scholars. In The U.S. Election 2012: Implications for Canada, the dominant theme was economic “uncertainty” and its effects. Whether it’s taxes, deficit reduction, interest rates, inflation, energy, or trade, American policy uncertainty was shown to be adversely affecting the U.S. economy as entrepreneurs, businesses, and investors delay making decisions. But it’s not just a U.S. problem; such uncertainty south of the border will also threaten jobs, income, and general prosperity here.