The promises are few, but the pilgrims are motivated.
Their journey won't lead them to parades, free concerts, or a glimpse of history in the making (neither in vivo nor on the screen of a mega-television). Many will tackle the mind-numbing perils of Highway 401, others the stomach-turning trials of lunching on the train, still others the hunger of living off pretzels on a domestic flight. All will endure the menace of midwinter in Ottawa.
But for Barack Obama, they will come.
"Just about the moment that President Obama was elected I decided that when he comes to Canada I want to be there," said Catherine Kinsman, a songwriter from Halifax.
She and her two bandmates in Dream For Real will board a flight to Ottawa, spending barely 48 hours in town so they can perform at a Canada Welcomes Obama rally on Feb. 19, the day of Mr. Obama's visit.
Ms. Kinsman volunteered for Mr. Obama's campaign in Virginia in the final days before the presidential election and was overwhelmed by the co-operation and unity of the grassroots effort that helped him win.
"I want to go and just support that, whether or not I'm actually able to see President Obama speak," she said.
Mr. Obama's Canadian dance card has been shrinking ever since the date of the visit was announced. Prime Minister Stephen Harper blocked a motion to invite Mr. Obama to speak to Parliament during his visit and the rally where Mr. Kinsman will perform was moved from Parliament Hill to a local church after government officials forbade group gatherings that day.
Quashed hopes of catching a glimpse of the 44th president have dissuaded some Canadians from making the pilgrimage to Ottawa, but many remain undeterred, said David De Weerdt, founder of the Facebook group Obama Canadian Visit.
Next week about 30 residents of the Kitchener-Waterloo area will board an Ottawa-bound bus chartered by Mr. De Weert and be driven to the capital by a good friend who also happens to be a bus driver.
Along the way, they may pass a bus bound for Ottawa from Hamilton with the Cunningham sisters on board. Natashia, 19, Natalie, 15, and Nataiah Cunningham, 14, also intend to perform at the Canada Welcomes Obama rally.
Like Mr. Obama, their mother is white and their father black. Last summer the girls started writing their own songs inspired by the man their mother has labelled "the Moses of our family."
"We were thinking about what inspires us the most and we just thought about changing, how the world's changing," Nataiah said. They wrote a song called Imagine about all the changes they hope Mr. Obama will bring.
Nataiah knows the odds are slim that Mr. Obama will get to hear her song. She's just excited to be performing in Ottawa with her sisters.
But if Mr. Obama does happen to wander by? "That'd be really nice," she said.
