CACOR member Dr. John Maskell considers the Canadian Election.
It’s 4am in the morning. I’ve just wakened from a very vivid dream.
In this dream I was visiting a family in another city from where I live. There were two teenagers in their senior year of high school, and there was a “welcome” evening going on for the entire senior class. The teenagers invited me to attend with them as their guest. Being an elder I was honoured and immediately accepted. They had been attending classes for a short time and the day after the welcome event was to be an election for the “leaders” of the senior class.
The first part of the evening was an open air event in a castle, or historical fort kind of setting. The main feature was for the election candidates to speak to their voters. Some of the candidates were “declaring” themselves; some of them were asking their compatriots, what’s important to them; some were asking for my reflections. I said, “The eve of an election is an auspicious and a scary time. Some of you will lose; some of you will not lose; all of us can win.”
I was approached by a very pleasant young lady. She presented a maturity that seemed to be both a senior student and a young teacher. She had shoulder length light brown hair that was curled and quaffed for the occasion and she was attired in an attractive rose-pink mid-length expertly-tailored outfit that complemented her statuesque physique quite regally. Her face was warm, friendly and hospitable. Her eyes sparkled. She asked if I would be the feature speaker for the evening. I felt as if I’d always known her, and yet, there was an entirely enigmatic quality about her. I could not discern how, when, where, or even if, I had met her somewhere previously. I said yes.
The second part of the evening was to be a banquet at the school’s retreat centre located on the other side of town. A bus arrived to take us there – the bus was symbolic as there were more students and staff than would fit on one bus. Also, we all knew that not all of the senior class came for the electioneering but that they would all turn up for the banquet. As we were queuing up for the bus one of the candidates asked me how I prepare a feature speech on such short notice. I answered that I open myself to the wisdom of the Infinite, I ask for ideas, images and metaphors and allow the words to flow when the time comes.
That’s when I woke up. In the twilight zone of awakening, gazing up into the darkness, I was surprized at the lucidity of my dream and by the sudden realization that it was only a dream. I recognized the lady dressed in pink as my feminine essence (we all have the essence of our opposite – for my normal natural public self, I tend to be Alpha Male. I “take charge!”) I also recognized my audience as the “senior class” of Canadians who are facing an election on Monday, October 21st. The question was all around me – what do I have to say to the candidates and voters of Canada’s senior class and to the lady in pink who gave me this opportunity?
My Banquet Speech for the Canadian Election, October 21, 2019
I want to live in, and I value and respect, a Canada in which:
- We know and speak our truth to each other and to our politicians and we hold them accountable between elections for their declarations and promises during elections.
- Our politicians speak their truth; they know the difference between truth and opinion and they make a significant effort to discern the facts and truth of their opinions before they speak them.
- The quality of political discourse in Canada stimulates critical thinking and discussion throughout society. Political spin and attack ads that denigrate are no longer acceptable.
- We recognize environment and climate issues as central to most policies and our students no longer need to “go on strike” to draw attention to the climate and ecological needs of our physical environment. We embrace our challenges and grow because of them.
- We value the rich heritage of our aboriginal peoples whose cultures recognize that all life on earth is conceived, created and maintained from the divine union of the Great Spirit and the Spirit-of-Mother-Earth-and-Water.
- We value, encourage and welcome immigrants knowing that almost all of us originated from Immigrant families.
- In my kind of Canada we all know that our food comes from farmers. The “store” is an intermediary. Our society values our farmers highly, and we seek to relieve them from the financial squeeze between big business agricultural inputs and big business food marketing.
- We encourage creativity and entrepreneurship as the primary generators of new employment – which will require an in-depth review of income and other taxing policies and philosophies.
- Scientific knowledge and research are the foundation of strong and sound policy.
- Canadians are involved with each other in multiple provinces and territories and we are as proud of each other in everyday life as we are in our sporting triumphs.
- Canadian social and public media can be relied on for honest facts, discretion, vitality, compassion, courage and stimulating opinion.
- Courts and legal proceedings are transparent. Our money and financial systems are rescued from the cancer of fiat fiction which exists solely as debt, based on consumers’ capacity and willingness to absorb interest and taxes. Most of us, including almost all politicians, don’t understand money and financial systems. Perhaps it’s time we did since they put square brackets around every aspect of our lives.
This is the Canada I treasure, I’d love to live in and seek to vote for.
To the Candidates:
An election is an auspicious and a scary time. You are commended for putting your identity, reputation and resources at risk. Most of you will lose; maybe 20-25% of you will not lose in the sense that you will gain a seat in the House of Commons. However, depending on the quality and honesty of your campaign activities there is a chance that all of you and all of us will win in the sense of gaining new understanding and new perspectives about the quality of Canada we want to live in. Most important of all, speak your truth above your party line.
To The Voters
I challenge you to do the work of discerning which candidate is most likely to reflect your preferences and yearning for the Canada in which you’d love to live; AND to discern the impact of Canadian policies on your lives. Which candidate is most likely to listen to your preferences and yearnings after Election Day. For some, this is not possible; there is no “best” candidate. So I challenge you to discern which is the least worst. I caution against automatic voting for “the party” there is no best party and no least worst party. Candidates are all only people with their own histories, fallibilities and personal standards of conduct.
To The Non-Voters
Some of you, who are eligible to vote, won’t … for various reasons. For some of you, it’s because you’ve given up on Canada and you have accepted life as a default zero sum game. There may be winners somewhere but they are never you. I challenge you to vote anyway if for no other reason than to signify to yourself that you are sick and tired of letting other people determine your daily agenda and that you are ready to take charge of your life at least in a small way. When you do that, the small ways of taking charge grow bigger and bigger and you grow happier and happier, little by little. So, in this case, vote for taking charge of yourself.
To The Lady In Pink
Thank you for creating this opportunity while my Alpha Male essence was sleeping; thank you for calming my Alpha Male self when I’m awake; and thank you for reminding me and raising my awareness of both the deep significance and the essential nature of the eternal dance of equalities between feminine caring and crative energy on the one hand and masculine power and dominance energy on the other. This is not a man/woman thing which is different and has been around throughout history. This is an inner dynamic of the ebb and flow of masculine /feminine energies that struggle within each of us for pre-eminence in our decision-making mechanics that cause us to either shrink or grow, on a moment by moment basis.
To the Reader
When this election is history, I hope you will remember two things from this election speech:
- Feminine and masculine energies are not enemies; they are inner complements.
- We all live by our thoughtful action or by default. No government, by its very nature, can be, or will be, more or less than its electors and members require it to be. We “require it” by making our voices heard and our actions noticed between elections. To the extent we are silent between elections we surrender the quality of “government” to those who are speaking up and are taking action.
John Maskell is member in good standing of the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (CACOR) and a certified Transformational Life Coach with a very wide scope of life experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University together with a Master’s and a PhD from University of Waterloo. Everyone is free to pass this election speech on to family, friends, colleagues, public and social Media provided only that credit is given, it’s not edited and its integrity is maintained. These are John’s personal views. Adding your own to go with them is encouraged.
Leave a Reply