Being Hopeful

I am over 3,000 KM from Canada.  From here in Guatemala I am very hopeful for what the new government is doing.

There is a lot going on back home that I am proud of. 

Many Canadians are standing up to help the refugees from Syria.

We are re-entering the global scene on dealing with climate change.

We have unmuzzled our government funded scientists.

We have re-instituted the long form census.

We seem to be on the road toward making things better for our aboriginal people.

We have a federal government which appears to be willing to listen to our diverse population and try to move us into a more open and progressive society by consensus.

But from down here in Central America, I am hopeful for a few other things as well.

I am hoping that we return to being the world's leader in peacekeeping forces.

That we return to being one of the best places in the world to raise children.

That we stop allowing Canadian companies to despoil other nations for the sake of profit.

That we strive to remove corruption from all our international dealings, NGOs, grants, aid and corporate.

We cannot fix everything at once, and even the items on this list will be only a start, but we do need to start.

The cynic in me says that soon we will go back to politics as usual, and there will be little substantive change.

But somewhere down deep inside, I am so very very hopeful.