A little clearer explanation of where I am going with Heartbeat.
Lending the platform that you’ve provided me, to hearing your voice.
Now more than ever, we need Canadians to be unapologetic, unafraid and have their 15 minutes to say what is on their mind.
I hope you’ll find your voice and join me in a one on one conversation.
As always, let me know what you think in the comments…and by all means, let me know when you are ready to share your Heartbeat.
Calls will be conducted via Zoom, broadcast on Substack and Twitter/X.
Video Transcript:
So over the last couple of days, I'd introduced an idea that I'd kind of come across, and I called it Heartbeat.
And it goes in tune with a song that my son produced, Heartbeat.
And it just kind of reached out to me at the right time and in the right frame of mind.
And I'm going to go through and just kind of explain where I'm at with this idea.
You see, over the last few years when I got into this, I never expected it to go on this long.
I thought, you know, just posting some statistics and finding an alternate space that wasn't going to be deleted by using Substack would be great, and then having a voice through Twitter or LinkedIn, even Facebook.
And I didn't think it was going to go on this long.
And throughout this period of time,
In some respects, I've been a little bit selfish because while I have met a lot of amazing people throughout this, I've tried to keep back from making this too personal.
And the reason that I say it's selfish is because I haven't been able to do it.
Listening to the stories of people losing parents, grandparents inside of long-term care communities, listening to how families were destroyed and communities were, you know, separated through the idea of vaccination to me was, it was, you know, when you throw that into deaths, mortalities, statistics, it was really hard for me to take.
And that's why I just haven't been able to do it.
Now, inside of this, I've been invited out to several communities and into several groups.
And I've got to say, I've met just so many amazing people, whether the organizers or the people that invited me out to speak.
Places where I show up where people know me by name and they have a good sense of who I am.
And even today, I was really fortunate to be invited out by people that I'd met for no other reason than through some statistical analysis and people that followed me out to brunch and had an amazing time just sitting back and talking with them.
And the idea of doing Heartbeat was somewhat...
Kind of a new concept, and I wasn't sure where I was going with this entirely.
But just having the opportunity to have met these people and spent some time with them just talking was an amazing experience.
And it's one of several that I've had.
Whereas, you know, quite often it's like...
do i want to go out do i need to be out and it's do i want to drive in the dark and it's you know i can make up a thousand excuses for not going out to these things but every time i do go out i just have a i have a great time and i meet some fantastic people and you know through the last four years I've been fortunate enough to build a you know following build a platform
and inside of that help my community grow and try and show support inside of my community and with others.
And now I think it's time to not just have a look at the same names and the same voices that you'll hear and see, but to reach out to the rest of the Canadians, the rest of the people that are inside of my circles, the rest of the people that have been screaming into the abyss
throughout this entire time.
You know, we've been gaslit and told that, uh, you know, we're all in this together when we never really were in this together.
Um, you know, cause as they're destroying communities and families, you're still trying to get this sense of, well, who's listening to me and how are you in it with me?
Am I not a part of what it means to be together?
And it's so many of those people that, you know, they could stand on the rooftop and shout out their messages and still always feel alone.
They're isolated.
There's so many groups that are going on and so many times that they've been out, but they, you know, in some senses feel the same way that I did.
Do I go out and how do I go out and who do I meet and who do I talk to?
And inside of that, there's people that are afraid to say the wrong thing and express the wrong opinion for fear of being further ostracized inside of their communities, potentially losing their jobs, their sources of income.
And it's been shameful.
Looking back at this last four years, I'm completely disgusted by how Canada has become.
So now that we're escaping the pandemic moments and we're coming out of our shells in spring, I think it's more important now than it ever has been for us to keep united and for me to use the platform that you've all provided me.
to showcase your voice to say how this is all impacted you to tell me where you are in your life you are the heartbeat of Canada and it doesn't matter how big or how small your presence is it doesn't matter how things have changed your life i want to hear about it and and it's not that i just want to hear about it is i want to share your stories with with other Canadians.
I want others to find the same voice that you're using.
I want others to be included in my efforts.
A lot of people know a lot about my family.
I'm a father, I'm a grandfather.
A lot of people know about my sources of income, what I do, and that's great.
But the most important thing that I think I can express about myself is,
However you feel about the size of your voice right now, however small or insignificant or alone you feel, what I need you to understand is that's where I started.
That's where a lot of the prominent voices started.
We are people just like you.
And I want to take and I want to extend my platform and I invite you to come and share your story.
Come and share your heartbeat.
As we progress, we're going to see a lot more things coming into the political landscape.
What's going on inside of the United States with Trump and Biden, it's definitely going to have its impact on Canada.
What we're looking at with the NDP government supporting the Liberals in a coalition party, we're going to see a lot of that.
Alberta, where I'm happily from, proud to be what's considered right now the last bastion of freedom under Premier Daniel Smith.
For me, it is a great province to have grown up in, to be a part of, a great place to have raised my family.
But it's not just Albertans that I need to be concerned about.
When we're looking at the political landscape and we're looking at these people telling us that you're not important.
We need to focus on what's happening in the Middle East.
We need to focus on what's happening in Ukraine.
We need to worry about an imaginary climate monster because
Because the climate's boiling.
I mean, it's not boiling in Canada, but we're still the population that's being penalized.
We're taking money from hardworking families, giving them to other countries, and starving our own communities.
You know, we had 11 million people that had to get a cash rebate for their groceries last year.
We have 2 million people, 2 million Canadians hitting the food banks per month.
We've got people living in tents, in cars, in the streets.
This is the Canada that I don't think any of us are proud of anymore.
And that's why I think it's important right now, just as important today as it was through going through the COVID thing, that you stand up, that you be recognized, that your voice gets heard.
I want to hear what you think about where you are right now.
I want to hear about
the impacts that this has all had on you.
And I want to see what you think about how we move forward.
I want to give you your voice.
Your voice is important, not just to me, but to all Canadians.
We're all the heartbeat.
Formal Introduction to Heartbeat...