I’m going out on a limb with this blog post… talking about something fairly controversial:  politics!

I found this election exceptionally disappointing.  But not for the reason that you might think.  Sure, the outcome was not necessarily what I would have wanted.  But I’m actually OK with that.  It’s the negativity that surrounded the election that saddened me.

Perhaps more disappointing than the negativity of the candidate(s) was the negativity of the voters.  Newspapers, TV and social media were filled with horrible, derogatory comments about the candidates.  It was divisive politics at its worst.

During the election, I stumbled upon a quote…  “Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody.”  Isn’t that sad?  I would far prefer to see voters supporting one candidate’s platform versus tearing down another’s.

So here’s the thing…  The election is over.  Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have won.  It’s done.  That ship has sailed.  So what are we going to do about it?  We can choose to continue being negative (and there is plenty of evidence of this in social media) and plot his demise, or we can get behind him.  Because there isn’t much choice…  Do we really want to see him fail?  What would that mean for Canadians?

We live in an amazing country.  In Canada, people of various ethnicities, cultures and faiths live and work together in peace and prosperity.  We are surrounded by beauty in this vast and varied land.  We have the freedom to write and speak without fear of retribution.  And yet, we don’t always use this freedom for the greater good.

I learned one of my most valuable professional lessons from an early manager.  I had come to him unable to resolve an issue.  In response, he said “bring me solutions, not problems”.  I really believe that if you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.

Canada isn’t perfect.  But if we want to continue down a progressive path, we must end the negativity and come together to find solutions.  I hope that we can all work with Justin Trudeau to make this country even better!

I’ll get off my soapbox now…  Thanks for indulging me!