According to Thomas King, we are 鈥渙nly the stories we tell ourselves,鈥� and I have observed, both in self and other, that the capacity for real political change comes not with just physical changes, but with changes to perception.

It's about how we perceives ourselves, or a situation at hand, and how we perceive our agency within this world 鈥� our economies, governments, societies and relations to each other. These are the pathways to radical transformation and reform in decades ahead. Truly, how we live 鈥渋n-relation with鈥� is becoming more and more important all the time, whether that be in relation to one another, our social structures, the natural world or our selves.

As I watch the 2025 election unfold, I think of a political theatre, where our emotions are pulled left and right and our division grows deeper based on the perception of our differing ways of handling life. I have remained, mostly, non-partisan for more than a decade, taking a view of observation over fanaticism, especially as an Indigenous person 鈥� more focused on learning the politics of my foreparents.

But as I observe the divisions of this election season my heart breaks. I am ever in awe of the concepts democracy was born from, how Indigenous governance systems around the world exemplify justice and grace, as well as inclusion of our 鈥榦ther than human relations.鈥� I think of Plato鈥檚 'Allegory Of The Cave,' where what is real and what is projected to control the mind is called into question. The intense emotionality of leadership 鈥� the grand divisions 鈥� that is where my distrust is born of the western political stage. It is not my emotions that distill from me trust. It is not in bashing one another. Nor is it born from rhetoric that projects apocalyptic futures that would garner fear over hope. No. These are not the campaigns of grounded, civic-centred democratic leaders.

For now, I stand to wonder less about how much I like or dislike any current leadership, but, I do wonder what this election would be like if British Columbia had successfully implemented proportional representation as a renewed voting system in its 2018 referendum and it had since caught on nationally. Would these elections be as aggressive? As tense and heated? Would our houses stand as divided? Would it seem like an all-or-nothing game?

Or would we all feel fairly sure that whatever our community, or political preferences, that we would have, or be able to build, representation we align with to sit at leadership tables? Would we all feel a little better 鈥渉eard?鈥�

This is not to ruminate in the past but as a thought experiment. What does it feel like for us as individuals to step into the responsibility of taking control of our own systems and show ourselves that real change is possible? Not by the one saviour political leader who will change everything (when we know that's an illusion 鈥� leaders are spokespeople for whomever they derive their power from), but rather to find change born from within ourselves.

Much like in our own lives, this is more vulnerable. This takes hope. This takes imagination. This takes dancing with, and accepting, all shadow aspects of ourselves that would ever tell us that we are incapable of change, that we 鈥渃an't鈥� do that, that鈥檚 just not 鈥渦s鈥� or, that鈥檚 someone else鈥檚 job.

The power we hold, as a civic body, lies in our political (or economic) imagination 鈥� how we imagine our own power as citizens, how we imagine our institutions, and how, or who, we imagine power is held by. Mother Nature shows us attributes of abundance that are quantified, not by dollar value, but by abundance brought to a diverse interaction of nations 鈥� literally a plurality of relationships and economic exchanges that continually take place on a global, other-than-human stage, every day.

We are, I believe, living during a time of great transition. And to dedicate oneself to this change, this shift, is also to say one will be willing to endure the discomfort of growth, ambiguity and the profound paradox of knowing something must change, but not yet knowing what that something is. We are in a time of holding, and, as yogi master Sadhguru states: 鈥淭he only way out, is in.鈥�

And as author and activist Alice Walker states: "I intend to protect my home. Praying 鈥� not a curse 鈥� only the hope that my courage will not fail my love. But if by some miracle, and all our struggle, the Earth is spared, only justice to every living thing (and everything is alive) will save human kind.鈥�