We have seen a notable and systemic shift in the role of individualism in Canada, the emergence of a default assumption that the correct and appropriate response to a collective issue is government intervention. That may be in the form of access to financial resources, programatic offerings or a new set of policy interventions in society.
This set the stage for the pandemic, the arrival of the virus in Canada in November 2019 and the declaration of a pandemic in March 2020, which led many governments to enact a series of interventions in our free society, with the intent of mitigating the spread of the virus. We all remember the catch phrases, “two weeks to flatten the curve”, “six feet of separation” and others. The majority of the population were caught off guard, did not see a pandemic with the associated restrictive covenants as part of 2020, simply did not have a strategy to counter a significant exogenous shock.
The rapid and immediate call for government intervention into rescuing the population, principally replacing lost income, led me to ponder a simple, but powerful question: why were people choosing to live a life so close to the line that they would need government money to cover their bills within a few months of losing their income?
The podcast, Inside My Canoehead, was my response to that question, to explore why the population at large was so unprepared for a shock, why the government intervention was necessary and what were the drivers behind a society that was so ill positioned to navigate such an event. The government had been issuing preparedness messaging for decades, financial gurus have been arguing for emergency funds for rainy days and health practitioners were advocating for caring for our mental health. The solutions were there, but the population simply chose not to listen.
It has been a pleasure to provide non-apocalyptic, evidence-based preparedness education for free, that is our mission at Preparedness Labs Incorporated, to be Canada’s source for rational and research based strategies to navigate exogenous shocks. So I raise a glass to all that made the past five years possible - my incredible wife, kids, confidants, Tina in Germany and a list of believers that convinced me to continue the message, to climb upon the soapbox in the public square and be unapologetically me. So I did and here I am.
Pro Patria.
www.insidemycanoehead.ca
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