Canadian Perspective on US Politics and Values

1
00:00:17,995 --> 00:00:18,900
Find yourself in.

2
00:00:23,874 --> 00:00:24,984
Thank you for joining me.

3
00:00:24,984 --> 00:00:25,884
I'm Nola Simon.

4
00:00:25,884 --> 00:00:29,484
I'm the host of the Hope and
Possibilities podcast, and today

5
00:00:29,484 --> 00:00:34,284
I actually wanted to talk a little
bit about what's happening and.

6
00:00:35,319 --> 00:00:38,229
The US and the world in general.

7
00:00:38,259 --> 00:00:43,449
But I wanted to share my unique
perspective because some of you

8
00:00:43,449 --> 00:00:48,649
may not realize that I worked for
a global organization in financial

9
00:00:48,649 --> 00:00:52,188
services for 17 and a half years.

10
00:00:52,759 --> 00:00:57,679
16 of those years were actually based
in the American division, and my

11
00:00:57,679 --> 00:01:00,888
clients happened to be for eight years.

12
00:01:01,983 --> 00:01:03,483
Mostly in Minnesota.

13
00:01:04,143 --> 00:01:09,693
So everything that's been happening
in the US recently has been

14
00:01:09,693 --> 00:01:11,314
focused on the state of Minnesota.

15
00:01:12,314 --> 00:01:16,964
And that's fascinating to me because
a lot of what's been happening

16
00:01:16,964 --> 00:01:19,874
has been happening primarily
where my clients were based.

17
00:01:21,874 --> 00:01:23,464
I've actually been to Minnesota.

18
00:01:25,069 --> 00:01:30,739
More than any other area of the
US because of that experience.

19
00:01:30,839 --> 00:01:31,649
Except for Florida.

20
00:01:31,649 --> 00:01:35,429
I've been to Florida a lot as a
Canadian, that's Disney World.

21
00:01:35,429 --> 00:01:38,719
That's, I think for Canadians.

22
00:01:38,719 --> 00:01:42,999
But Minnesota, I've been
through the entire state.

23
00:01:42,999 --> 00:01:48,518
I once did a whole week car
trip through Minnesota and so

24
00:01:48,548 --> 00:01:50,018
everything that's been happening.

25
00:01:51,018 --> 00:01:55,373
It is shocking, but quite
honestly, not entirely shocking.

26
00:01:56,423 --> 00:02:02,843
I started leaving John
Hancock when I was 2016.

27
00:02:02,873 --> 00:02:05,453
My father-in-law had died in 2015.

28
00:02:05,873 --> 00:02:11,694
We settled his estate finally in
2016, and then my mother was diagnosed

29
00:02:11,694 --> 00:02:14,784
with dementia and died in 2017.

30
00:02:14,964 --> 00:02:16,888
Took me another year
and a half to actually.

31
00:02:17,828 --> 00:02:22,569
Leave car accident didn't help in 2018.

32
00:02:23,319 --> 00:02:29,159
It took a lot of time to really
find that transition because

33
00:02:29,159 --> 00:02:37,289
it was like I had packed up and
moved to the US for 16 years.

34
00:02:38,519 --> 00:02:42,764
I. Realized that the way that I
told the story about my skills and

35
00:02:42,764 --> 00:02:48,224
abilities and how I talked about the
work really didn't resonate in Canada.

36
00:02:48,763 --> 00:02:54,433
And even though I was always paid
in Canada by Canadian company

37
00:02:55,094 --> 00:02:57,674
the work itself didn't resonate.

38
00:02:58,934 --> 00:03:01,608
And what I'd learned
over the years too was.

39
00:03:02,638 --> 00:03:06,809
I have the ability to work
with people who don't share

40
00:03:09,418 --> 00:03:11,759
values and beliefs.

41
00:03:12,299 --> 00:03:15,659
I had a personal role
with my American clients.

42
00:03:15,659 --> 00:03:17,189
I didn't talk about gun control.

43
00:03:17,189 --> 00:03:18,449
I didn't talk about religion.

44
00:03:18,959 --> 00:03:22,799
I didn't talk about the medical
system, and I didn't talk about,

45
00:03:22,899 --> 00:03:25,479
employment law for the most part.

46
00:03:26,078 --> 00:03:30,218
You only have to have a couple of
conversations about a year long maternity

47
00:03:30,218 --> 00:03:37,718
leave to realize that the value system
is just so significantly different and

48
00:03:37,718 --> 00:03:42,518
the laws that are in place to support
that are so fundamentally different

49
00:03:42,518 --> 00:03:47,288
from Canada that it's not in anybody's
best interest really to highlight.

50
00:03:47,739 --> 00:03:54,519
Especially when there's a mentality
that the customer is always right and

51
00:03:55,239 --> 00:03:59,139
you really don't want to annoy them.

52
00:04:00,549 --> 00:04:02,649
So I did that for 16 years.

53
00:04:03,178 --> 00:04:04,948
And what happened in 2016?

54
00:04:05,594 --> 00:04:06,524
Funny you ask.

55
00:04:06,704 --> 00:04:12,794
Obamacare got disabled and so when
Obama was in the White House and

56
00:04:12,794 --> 00:04:17,944
there were significant changes to the
medical system in particular hardship

57
00:04:17,944 --> 00:04:22,444
withdrawals for medical bankruptcy
really went down and those calls

58
00:04:22,444 --> 00:04:24,514
were always hard to really take.

59
00:04:24,964 --> 00:04:29,104
In 2016, when that stopped,
those calls started again.

60
00:04:30,633 --> 00:04:31,443
And

61
00:04:33,813 --> 00:04:38,373
I didn't want to subject
myself to that anymore.

62
00:04:38,494 --> 00:04:46,174
Like I could see what was happening and
fundamentally what was going to happen

63
00:04:46,174 --> 00:04:49,494
because I studied history at university.

64
00:04:51,114 --> 00:04:54,504
My major was math, but I
minored in history and.

65
00:04:55,269 --> 00:04:59,889
My father actually grew
up in Nazi Germany.

66
00:05:00,519 --> 00:05:04,089
He was born in 1932, so when the war
happened, he was seven years old.

67
00:05:04,959 --> 00:05:10,839
My mother was from Glasgow, so my
parents, since the time I was a child,

68
00:05:10,869 --> 00:05:14,289
as a child, really educated me on

69
00:05:16,674 --> 00:05:16,894
the.

70
00:05:17,739 --> 00:05:21,969
Different aspects of politics and how
that's woven into daily life and the

71
00:05:21,969 --> 00:05:32,499
choices individual people make when the
world is hard, when society is presenting

72
00:05:32,499 --> 00:05:34,929
choices that aren't fundamentally in your

73
00:05:37,204 --> 00:05:41,619
best interest, nor are they things that
you value, but how do you survive that?

74
00:05:43,599 --> 00:05:45,729
So it's been really fascinating to me.

75
00:05:45,729 --> 00:05:56,889
And so I identified 10 years ago that I
wanted to reduce the amount of American

76
00:05:59,079 --> 00:06:01,419
exposure on my day-to-day life.

77
00:06:02,019 --> 00:06:08,359
And that was not where I wanted to
really have my career centered and from

78
00:06:08,359 --> 00:06:14,839
a Canadian perspective, I've really
been removing American influence from my

79
00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:18,859
personal life and my career for 10 years.

80
00:06:18,859 --> 00:06:22,049
This is not just something
that has started because of

81
00:06:22,049 --> 00:06:24,969
tariffs or, anything like that.

82
00:06:24,999 --> 00:06:30,529
And I think Americans are really stunned
that Canadians are finding it that

83
00:06:30,529 --> 00:06:33,589
easy to really divorce themselves from.

84
00:06:35,554 --> 00:06:42,844
American culture and pop culture and the
way that we shop, the choices that we

85
00:06:42,844 --> 00:06:50,434
make to buy elsewhere and how that, that
really is impacting the American economy.

86
00:06:50,484 --> 00:06:54,924
You're seeing, the travel industry
is being decimated because people

87
00:06:54,924 --> 00:06:56,664
are just choosing not to travel.

88
00:06:57,104 --> 00:07:00,134
And we're seeing states actually
running advertising campaigns to

89
00:07:00,134 --> 00:07:05,394
get Canadian travelers back despite
the fact that, it doesn't feel

90
00:07:05,394 --> 00:07:06,954
safe to actually cross the border.

91
00:07:06,954 --> 00:07:07,674
Because if a, and

92
00:07:08,224 --> 00:07:11,284
Even just the threat really to look
at your phone and your social media.

93
00:07:11,284 --> 00:07:14,104
I've been commenting on
my reasons for leaving.

94
00:07:15,214 --> 00:07:18,184
In American division for 10 years.

95
00:07:18,184 --> 00:07:19,564
I can't walk that back.

96
00:07:19,624 --> 00:07:24,304
At some point somebody's gonna look
at things that I've said over 10

97
00:07:24,304 --> 00:07:31,054
years that weren't controversial
when I wrote them and think that

98
00:07:31,054 --> 00:07:32,404
they might be controversial now.

99
00:07:32,914 --> 00:07:34,714
So how do I proceed?

100
00:07:35,734 --> 00:07:37,594
My client base is not American.

101
00:07:38,104 --> 00:07:41,004
I'm definitely, global in nature.

102
00:07:41,004 --> 00:07:45,804
I will look at, what's happening
in Australia and the UK and

103
00:07:45,804 --> 00:07:47,994
Denmark and Europe in general.

104
00:07:47,994 --> 00:07:51,904
And, I definitely look at the
US because I've got a great

105
00:07:51,904 --> 00:07:53,494
deal of familiarity with it.

106
00:07:53,554 --> 00:07:59,164
But quite honestly, my bread and
butter would be, the idea would

107
00:07:59,164 --> 00:08:02,134
be to have a solid Canadian base.

108
00:08:02,974 --> 00:08:10,263
It really doesn't harm me or impact me to
really talk about the fact that Americans

109
00:08:11,264 --> 00:08:14,174
really need to own what's
going on in their comp country.

110
00:08:14,384 --> 00:08:19,333
And I know the majority of
Americans didn't vote for this.

111
00:08:19,333 --> 00:08:22,664
I know the majority of
Americans didn't expect.

112
00:08:23,664 --> 00:08:27,654
Government agents to be shooting
citizens in the streets.

113
00:08:29,424 --> 00:08:35,813
I've talked, I talked to Americans for
16 years daily, multiple times a day.

114
00:08:36,294 --> 00:08:37,404
They're good people.

115
00:08:37,493 --> 00:08:39,563
The majority of them, they.

116
00:08:40,073 --> 00:08:40,733
Care.

117
00:08:40,763 --> 00:08:43,913
They're courteous, they're
polite, they're interesting.

118
00:08:43,913 --> 00:08:44,873
They're funny.

119
00:08:45,714 --> 00:08:47,513
I miss quite a lot of them.

120
00:08:47,903 --> 00:08:52,908
Even 10 years later I think about
the people who made my days a daily

121
00:08:52,908 --> 00:08:56,388
delight because they were fun.

122
00:08:57,828 --> 00:08:58,578
So

123
00:09:00,918 --> 00:09:08,028
when I talk about Americans, it's with
great deal of appreciation because.

124
00:09:08,849 --> 00:09:11,669
I like a lot of the
clients that I dealt with.

125
00:09:12,419 --> 00:09:16,649
But I also know that it

126
00:09:19,349 --> 00:09:24,719
change only really happens when
you own your collective impact.

127
00:09:24,959 --> 00:09:31,049
And so you may not have voted for
what's happening, but you do have

128
00:09:31,079 --> 00:09:34,319
the ability to make a difference and.

129
00:09:34,754 --> 00:09:39,524
Advocate for change, and this is
where this fight for democracy that's

130
00:09:39,524 --> 00:09:45,044
happening actually on the streets of
Minneapolis and the protests and the,

131
00:09:45,764 --> 00:09:49,624
on, on Friday, there's supposed to be
no work, no school, no shopping and

132
00:09:49,654 --> 00:09:59,734
economic boycott really to impact the
companies that are not standing up for.

133
00:10:01,024 --> 00:10:02,944
What's right and

134
00:10:05,764 --> 00:10:07,144
what's uncomfortable.

135
00:10:07,654 --> 00:10:13,534
That's nice to see because quite honestly,
that's what Americans have to do.

136
00:10:13,534 --> 00:10:15,094
And it has to be Americans.

137
00:10:15,094 --> 00:10:18,934
That's why 10 years ago when
I made the decision that I,

138
00:10:19,934 --> 00:10:21,404
I wanted to work with.

139
00:10:21,884 --> 00:10:24,404
People and companies
whose values match mine.

140
00:10:25,064 --> 00:10:30,074
And the way to do that was to focus more
on can Canada and Canadian companies

141
00:10:30,074 --> 00:10:32,804
rather than American companies.

142
00:10:34,034 --> 00:10:38,804
I made that decision 10 years ago
and people are just noticing this now

143
00:10:39,164 --> 00:10:45,134
and confronting it because it can't
come from anybody who's external.

144
00:10:46,134 --> 00:10:49,194
Because Americans themselves don't

145
00:10:50,194 --> 00:10:51,544
value the insight

146
00:10:52,544 --> 00:10:56,934
and I'm gonna pause there and just say,
I'm not trying to be insulting with that.

147
00:10:56,994 --> 00:10:59,394
I'm not trying to be
confronting with that.

148
00:10:59,874 --> 00:11:03,114
It's just a reality of the American.

149
00:11:04,539 --> 00:11:13,509
Personality, which is, home with the brave
land of the free Americans are the best.

150
00:11:13,869 --> 00:11:17,229
You see it in movies where the
American rag comes in and the

151
00:11:17,229 --> 00:11:19,879
heroes are always Americans, cans.

152
00:11:21,399 --> 00:11:26,379
I can't tell you how many times I've
seen Recreation of World War II where.

153
00:11:27,309 --> 00:11:31,749
The Americans are the heroes, even
though the whole rest of the world

154
00:11:31,749 --> 00:11:35,049
was president and contributed in
multiple different ways as well too.

155
00:11:35,599 --> 00:11:41,449
The storytelling that is woven
into day-to-day American life is

156
00:11:41,449 --> 00:11:43,939
that Americans are the good guys.

157
00:11:44,869 --> 00:11:49,669
And so when things are happening
that are not in the best interest

158
00:11:49,669 --> 00:11:52,189
of sustaining that narrative.

159
00:11:53,239 --> 00:11:57,109
The change, the advocates, the
people who have to really fight for

160
00:11:57,109 --> 00:12:01,699
this, have to be Americans because

161
00:12:04,189 --> 00:12:06,259
you are the only voices

162
00:12:09,229 --> 00:12:16,279
that really make a difference
to each individual, American.

163
00:12:17,279 --> 00:12:18,209
And that matters.

164
00:12:18,539 --> 00:12:24,299
So I am doing this in a podcast rather
than actually writing it on LinkedIn

165
00:12:24,929 --> 00:12:28,919
because I feel the need to share it,

166
00:12:31,124 --> 00:12:37,109
but I also know that
I get fewer listeners.

167
00:12:38,109 --> 00:12:39,729
And so this is controversial.

168
00:12:40,239 --> 00:12:44,889
I realize that I have a perspective that
not a lot of Canadians are willing to

169
00:12:44,889 --> 00:12:51,099
speak up and say my relationship with
my American clients worked because I

170
00:12:51,099 --> 00:12:54,699
was not honestly allowed to voice my.

171
00:12:57,459 --> 00:12:59,199
Distinct Canadian opinion,

172
00:13:01,689 --> 00:13:01,959
right?

173
00:13:02,299 --> 00:13:05,659
I was throttled, my calls were recorded.

174
00:13:05,659 --> 00:13:13,189
People knew what I was saying, and
honestly, I probably conveyed a lot

175
00:13:13,189 --> 00:13:16,669
more than I ever should have to the
majority of the clients that I had.

176
00:13:17,329 --> 00:13:20,869
But realistically, you didn't.

177
00:13:20,989 --> 00:13:24,559
You never got the honest,
upfront version of me.

178
00:13:25,669 --> 00:13:26,749
That a corporate filter.

179
00:13:29,359 --> 00:13:39,799
So I really hope that Americans figure
it out because it's shocking to see

180
00:13:39,799 --> 00:13:44,119
the relationship between Canada and
the US disintegrate the way it has.

181
00:13:44,119 --> 00:13:45,739
But Mark Carney is right.

182
00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:49,639
It's nostalgia.

183
00:13:52,204 --> 00:13:57,694
It's the way it used to be, and quite
honestly, it's been disintegrating for

184
00:13:57,694 --> 00:14:01,924
far longer than what most people think.

185
00:14:01,984 --> 00:14:06,274
Again, I started seeing this
and making moves to change

186
00:14:06,274 --> 00:14:10,624
my interactions 10 years ago.

187
00:14:11,974 --> 00:14:13,684
And what does that mean for the future?

188
00:14:15,724 --> 00:14:16,234
I don't know.

189
00:14:16,864 --> 00:14:18,814
I think it really depends on the.

190
00:14:19,864 --> 00:14:25,714
The way that individual Americans
speak up and advocate for what

191
00:14:25,714 --> 00:14:27,604
they want the future to be.

192
00:14:28,354 --> 00:14:31,564
And I know that's scary, and I
know that it doesn't feel safe,

193
00:14:32,074 --> 00:14:36,074
especially with the way that,
people are being shot and murdered.

194
00:14:39,044 --> 00:14:44,594
There's no easy answer, but the
answers do have to come from Americans

195
00:14:45,464 --> 00:14:46,904
because what's gonna happen is.

196
00:14:47,189 --> 00:14:51,119
Other people, other countries
are going to make choices

197
00:14:53,549 --> 00:15:00,479
that protect them, that make
their daily lives feel safer.

198
00:15:01,589 --> 00:15:03,419
And quite honestly, I'm an example

199
00:15:22,414 --> 00:15:23,319
Find yourself in.