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When Toronto bookstore owner Itah Sadu decided she was going to attend Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington, she asked her friends if they wanted to come.

So many said yes she ended up chartering a bus.

Their inauguration-bound vehicle seats 35, and will be full when it leaves Yorkdale Mall on Monday.

Ms. Sadu, 47, hasn't planned any entertainment for the 10-hour trip, so as not to interrupt spontaneous expressions of inaugural glee.

"A number of the people that I'm going with are such enthusiastic people that they'll just burst into song," she said.

No one keeps an exact tally, but by all estimates the number of Canadians attending Mr. Obama's inauguration will be record breaking: Ms. Sadu's bus will be one of several chartered to leave Toronto for Washington this weekend, and at least one U.S. car-pooling agency engaged its first Canadian clients, from Toronto and Montreal, in the lead-up to Inauguration Day on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Canadians, with a frequency second only to Americans, are Googling the term "inauguration."

It all points to a mini-exodus from Canada this weekend bound for Capitol Hill.

Glyn Lewis, co-founder of Canadians for Obama, booked his flight from Vancouver to Washington for the inauguration before Mr. Obama had even won the Democratic nomination.

"It was wishful thinking," the 25-year-old said.

Mr. Lewis worked on the Obama campaign and helped to recruit more than 25 Canadians to canvass battlegrounds such as Fort Worth, Tex., and Charlotte, N.C. He said the most striking thing about Canadian Obama supporters was that "they came from every single political stripe: We had federal Liberals, we had NDP, we had Green Party members, even some Conservatives. It was literally the whole [gamut] of the spectrum, but coming together around a common cause."

Mr. Lewis is hopeful he'll be able to secure a ticket to the inaugural ceremony and intends to stay with friends he met on the campaign trail in Washington so that he can "take in the fruits of our labour" on Inauguration Day.

The polls put John McCain and Barack Obama at nearly a tie last summer, when Daphne Cocks, an undergraduate at the University of Regina, received an invitation to the inauguration through an organization called Presidential Classroom. Her invitation included not only a ticket to the inaugural ceremony, but also to the inaugural parade, an inaugural ball and several lectures on politics and the U.S. Constitution.

She laughs now when she recalls her reaction.

"It was casual, like, I could go," she said.

But as she learned more about the candidates she was drawn by Mr. Obama's liberal leanings and what she perceived as his unfailing honesty. To Ms. Cocks, Mr. Obama's victory meant her invitation to the inauguration became a chance to witness history in the making.

She believes that Canadians are attracted to Mr. Obama because his policies and his election reflect "cultural progress" in the United States that brings our neighbour more in line with Canada.