What World Do You Want to Live In?

We have an election in Canada on April 28, 2025. I vote in every election, because our vote is our voice, but this election feels so much bigger and more important than any previous federal or provincial vote. This month, I’m asking myself and others, “What world do you want to live in?”

The answer really matters. It goes way beyond aligning with a particular political party because you want a perceived tax break, or because you’ve historically identified with one party over another. In 2025, we are observing in real time what happens to a country when you vote for a person who dismantles the checks and balances to exert authoritarian control over individuals and systems.

I find the situation developing to the south to be terrifying. It feels like the end of days, like the freedom I’ve previously taken for granted is perilous and in constant danger of disappearing altogether. Every day, reading the news headlines is like watching the water level rise, until very soon I’ll be taking my last breath and the sea will be over my head.

I’m posting this a few days ahead of my usual schedule, because I want it to come out before Canadians go to the polls. I beg any person reading this to ask yourself, “What world do you want to live in?” One that remains the Canada that we know and recognise, which is admittedly not perfect, but still values freedom of the press, gun safety laws, public health, social services, diverse human rights, public school funding, and more? Or something that could slide alarmingly into the power hungry surveillance state that started an unnecessary trade war with Canada and continues to threaten our sovereignty as a country?

I know what my answer is. I’m for freedom, in all areas, and for all people. I keep thinking of how many times I’ve gone down the thought exercise road of wondering what I would have done in Germany in the mid-1930s if I’d been alive then. It’s horrifying to recognise and acknowledge that this is no longer a theoretical thought process. It’s now. It’s real.

I don’t want to live in a Canada that aligns itself with authoritarian governments and economies. I want to know that my rights and freedoms are not worth more than anyone else who lives in my country because we might have different skin colours or backgrounds or belief systems. I want a social care network that holds every individual, for none of us know when we might need that help. Freedom is worthless unless it belongs to every citizen of the nation. Otherwise it’s not real freedom.

In every bone of my body I’m longing for a world where we learn to care for everyone around us once again. Where we don’t prioritise our own safety and personal economic success above what other people might need to survive and flourish. Wouldn’t it be lovely to live in a world that believed it was a good and healthy practice to care for everyone in the community instead of just caring about ourselves and our immediate families?

That’s the dream I put into my novel Post Civ. And it’s what I’m dreaming about this month, as Canadians go to the polls to elect a new government. I hope desperately that government is a Liberal one, that will continue to stand up to the authoritarian threats we are facing from our nearest geographical neighbour. We need to consider history with this vote, and veer sharply away from any possibility that brings us closer to losing our freedom of choice and not caring about those who need help and support.

We are all Canadians, more alike than we are different. When voting, please consider the world you want to live in. Don’t gamble with your freedom or mine. Let’s stay united as a country, as far away from authoritarian rule as possible. Let’s remain the true north, strong and free, forever.

Canada’s Federal Election

Confession: I did not vote for the Liberal party in the 2015 Canadian Federal election. I voted Conservative because I thought Justin Trudeau was a spoiled brat who wasn’t ready to lead our country.

I was wrong. Over the last four years, Trudeau has changed my mind. With the exception of a few notable missteps (and who among us hasn’t made mistakes even when we aren’t in the public eye?), I believe he has taken us in the right direction when it comes to gender equality, the environment, human rights and the economy.

You may disagree with me and that is your right as my fellow Canadian. We live in a democratic country and the right to vote according to your conscience is part of what makes us the true north strong and free.

As a general rule, I try not to write about politics, but as my friend* Rob Bell says, “The political is personal and the personal is political.” It’s all mixed in together. And not speaking up has a different type of price tag in the divided world we are living in, so the time has come for me to write a political post. (*We are not actually friends, but I feel like we are friends.)

In this election, we have more at stake as a country than in previous elections. Voting Conservative in 2019 is a vote that echoes the far right-wing ideologies we’ve seen from a distance in the U.S. with Trump and up close and personal in Ontario and Alberta with Ford and Kenney.

These platforms on a Federal level mean tax cuts for the rich and slashed budgets for education and health care. A Conservative vote in 2019 means taking Canada backwards in civil rights, environmental protections and gender equality. We’ve seen in this election process that it also means fear, anti-immigration and bullying, not to mention outright lies.

When I was a teenager, I used to wonder what I would’ve done if I lived in Germany in the mid-1930s as fascism was on the rise. Would I have gone along with the patriotic fervour, believing the Nazi party was the best choice for Germany’s economy and choosing to turn a blind eye to their human rights atrocities?

I like to believe that I wouldn’t have voted for a fascist agenda, but wondering what we would’ve done 80-some years ago is no longer an idle conjecture exercise. We are living this choice right now. What you do now is likely what you would’ve done then, so we can all stop wondering. Now is the time to act.

Vote however your conscience leads you on October 21st. I choose forward, by voting for the Liberal Party. Please consider carefully which direction you want Canada to move in, and vote with great care and deliberation.