A change of leadership in Iran has the sizable Persian-Canadian community on the North Shore hopeful that better times are ahead for family members back home and for the Iranian diaspora abroad.
In the June 14 presidential election, Hassan Rouhani, perceived to be the most moderate of eight candidates allowed to run in the election, won with more than 50 per cent of the vote.
Rouhani will take over for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conservative who ramped up Iran's international pariah status by pursuing a nuclear program in defiance of the United Nations, worsening the regime's record on human rights, sponsoring terrorism and antagonizing Western countries with sabre rattling and threats to Israel.
For Nick Hosseinzadeh, a North Vancouver political science student and blogger, Rouhani's win represents a badly needed change of direction for the country.
"You have to realize, for the past eight years Ahmadinejad was like a scar or black eye for Iranian people around the world, especially for expats who are living in different countries," Hosseinzadeh said. "He was a failed president from a foreign policy aspect but also domestically. He did a terrible job of handling the economy."
Rouhani ran on a platform of holding more congenial dialogue with the West, which Hosseinzadeh said could be a big step in resolving Iran's economic woes and easing the minds of their loved ones in Canada.
"If he's able to have pragmatic discussions with Western leaders and ease sanctions, that would go a long way to helping Iranians here who have family back there and want to send money, or visit them," he said. "A lot of Iranians are struggling. The American politicians, Canadian politicians and Western politicians will tell you the sanctions are working, but the real effect is on the people themselves."
Rouhani also represents a chance to bring stability to the region, if the country can reach out to its neighbours and stop supporting terrorist groups and dictators, including Syria's Bashar al-Assad, Hosseinzadeh said.
But those are big ifs, as Rouhani's power will be limited by Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the unelected supreme leader in Iran's Islamic republic.
"It is positive that he was one of the more moderate candidates, but we can't write the script yet. We have to see what actually happens and what he's allowed to do," Hosseinzadeh said.
The 2009 election was largely perceived to be rigged for Ahmadinejad and was met with months of protests resulting in thousands of arrests and dozens being killed.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird issued a statement calling the results of the June 14 election "effectively meaningless" in light of the regime's manipulation of the political process. Hosseinzadeh called that an "empty statement."
"People who might not have felt their vote counted in 2009 still had the courage to go out and vote again. They wanted their voices heard. I don't think it was meaningless. It was a statement against the current regime," he said. "The most amazing thing I saw was how big the turnout was. It was really inspirational and a great showing of Iranian will to go out and vote. They were determined to let their voices be heard."
More than 70 per cent of the country voted, compared to the 61-per-cent turnout in Canada's last federal election.
Baird later backtracked and took a new tack in an open letter to the people of Iran.
"Only the people of Iran can determine the meaning of the elections, and an overwhelming number of Iranians used their vote to reject extremism, protest Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's regressive clerical-military dictatorship, and express a deep desire for change," he wrote.
John Weston, MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country and the federal government's liaison to the Iranian Canadian community, said his feelings fall somewhere between Baird's dichotomous views.
"Whether you call it guarded optimism, or muted cynicism, one has mixed feelings about it. I think it's the best possible result of what could have happened. But that is very limited," he said.
The federal government banned all imports and exports between Iran and Canada in May, citing the regime's nuclear program and threats to peace in the region, which Weston acknowledged wasn't universally popular with Iranian Canadians. But, he added, it was meant to pressure the regime, and could be a path to reopening normal relations between the countries.
"Even though they may be inconvenienced in varying capacities, every Iranian Canadian I know craves more democracy and freedom in Iran and an abatement of human rights abuses and stepping back from nuclear armament. If this new president is able to move Iran in a democratic direction, then presumably we would be looking for a Persian spring," Weston said.
