In the movie, “The Hunger Games”, a large group of very young people are let lose in the woods and the goal is to kill everyone and be the last one standing. Welcome to the 2015 Canadian Federal Election Campaign. I am not a “political” speaker as being politically correct on stage is paramount and professional, but of course like almost all of us, I have an opinion. I will not state my preference here because the party you and I will vote for is personal and therein lies the problem. Why has politics morphed into a gigantic playground where everyone is pitted against each other and the only thing that matters is winning? It has become a public war and I have seen it over and over again where people who are good friends become mortal enemies over politics. I view this as insane but even more vitally, it casts a profoundly negative energy across our Nation.
Have we forgotten what an amazing country Canada is? Have we forgotten the unity felt when our Canadian Women’s and Men’s Hockey Teams won Gold in Russia last year? Have we forgotten that Canada has less violence than almost any other nation on the planet? Have we forgotten that we are all “Canadians”, not “Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrats, etc”? The commercials we are being assaulted with across all media platforms are designed to divide us rather than unite us. How can that be good for our country?
Most important, are you going to vote? So many people sigh and proclaim, “What’s the point?” The point is…DEMOCRACY! We have taken that fact alone for granted. Why is our default mode to seemingly forget all the things we have rather than what we don’t and the right to vote is one of them! Isn’t it time we collectively promise that we will do more to make Canada an even better place to live by expecting more of our elected officials? We can do that by sending them a simple message; don’t tell me how lousy the other parties may be, tell me what you are going to do to improve things.
In my life story, which so many of you know, I heard time and again what was “wrong” with me. It occurred for many reasons, most likely, the time frame of my development. In the 60’s and 70’s, we just didn’t see people without arms as having any positive qualities. We saw them as having “less”, when in fact, I believe sometimes having less gives you “more”. More appreciation, more gratitude and more motivation to work towards a life that proves all the critics wrong.
In our organizations, are we constantly criticizing each other and focusing on people’s faults or are we working together to build more successful companies and institutions? As the famous words go, ” Its easier to tear something down that to build it up”. This election campaign is a very loud example of this idea and the connection with the Hunger Games is not far off. There problem is, The Hunger Games is a movie and the election is real. We can change the way things are done by simply expecting more humanity and less drama from our politicians and we can do this by challenging them to do better, the same way we strive to improve our lives by building up our workplaces and our communities, not tearing them apart!
My work and life experience has been that when you exceed expectations, you accomplish things you thought were impossible and if there is any lesson I want to remind everyone of…”There’s REALLY No Such Word As Can’t!”