Right Here, Right Now

Key takeaways:

- In isolation, on paper, a lot of the ideas presented in this book are appealing. I think that would probably be the case for most political party platforms. The problem is we live in the real world where things are rarely so neat. This highlights that no worldview is perfect, but that (most) bring something important to the table. To stand somewhere on the political spectrum and tear apart the views (or worse, the people) who have chosen to stand somewhere else is not productive. We'd be far better off to carefully consider all perspectives, then chose the stance that seems best for the majority of people, not the one that aligns with our party of choice.
- This book challenged me. Too often I have chosen a political stance based on what feels right. Stephen showed that often it's not that simple. There are too many nuances and and humans are complex. I like immigration and the idea of allowing many people in. He highlighted that many policies that benefit immigrants who move to Canada are counter intuitive to what I might have believed. Of course there is more to the story than what he has provided, but it was a good reminder that there can be compelling evidence on each side of a discussion. If we really want what is best, we need to make time to listen to both.
- Stephen raised issues surrounding Donald Trump's presidency many times. I found his analysis about how DT gave a voice to people who felt like they hadn't been represented very interesting. It wasn't necessarily that everyone who voted for Trump agreed with all of his policies, but that they believed he would represent them when no one else was.
- I do not enjoy politics and have not been very involved in these conversations. Stephen Harper was the prime minister from 2006 - 2015 when I was young and even less interested, so I knew very little about him. While there are many issues we wouldn't see eye-to-eye on, I really enjoyed hearing his perspective and the approach he used to make decisions.