Campfire Conversations and the Future of Leadership in Canada

I just spent my first Canada Day back on Canadian soil in four years. The stars were bright, the mosquitoes relentless, and the fire burned low into the cool summer night. But what struck me most wasn’t the laughter between sips of cold beer or the chorus of loons echoing across the lake. It was the conversation around the campfire this year. People weren’t talking about the best fishing spots or hockey trades. They were talking about fractures. Divisions. About how it feels to live in Canada right now – tense, worried, tired.

One person spoke about how their family can’t get a family doctor. Another about the rising cost of living and fear of losing their home. Another about rising crime in their once-safe town. However, the strongest undercurrent was a deep-seated sense of division. Division about immigration, division about health care policy, division about freedoms, division about who belongs and who doesn’t.

And most agreed on one thing: our elected leaders aren’t working to bring us together. Instead, it seems they’re using these divisions to consolidate power, to appeal to certain groups by stoking fear and resentment. Divide and conquer is an old strategy. But history tells us that when leaders use it against their own people, the consequences are long and bitter.

A democratic society depends on one thing above all: leaders who listen to the people and serve their will, not just the people who voted for them, not just the people who agree with them. All of the people. Because when leaders stop listening, when they fuel divides rather than heal them, communities fracture in ways that are hard to repair.

The Hidden Fracture from COVID

There’s another wound festering quietly beneath the surface. Around the fire, it came up again and again: the resentment from the pandemic years.

Millions of Canadians were excluded from public life because they didn’t take the vaccine. Millions more felt deeply coerced to take it, not because they believed it was the right choice for them, but because they feared losing their jobs, their homes, their ability to travel to see loved ones, or even just to participate in society.

A recent study in Ontario found that about one-quarter of vaccinated healthcare workers said they had to be coerced into receiving additional COVID-19 doses under threat of losing their jobs. Another qualitative study in Alberta revealed that over 80% of healthcare workers expressed negative sentiments about vaccine mandates, describing feelings of coercion, moral injury, and institutional betrayal.

If even healthcare workers – the very people dealing with COVID firsthand – had to be coerced to take it, what does that say about how the rest of Canadians felt? About the millions working outside of hospitals, in restaurants, trades, retail, and transportation, who were told to comply or risk their livelihoods. When so many feel they had no real choice, the damage to trust isn’t confined to healthcare – it runs through the entire fabric of society.

But no one wants to talk about it. Our leaders pretend it never happened. They label these conversations as dangerous or divisive when, in reality, it’s the silence that is dangerous.

When resentment isn’t acknowledged, it festers. When people feel coerced rather than heard, they lose trust, not just in politicians, but in the very fabric of community.

The Future Demands Leaders Who Unite

The future of leadership will demand something different. We need leaders first, politicians second. Leaders who are willing to listen with humility, not just to those who agree with them, but to those whose voices have been silenced.

We need leaders who:

• Stop using fear as a political tool. It’s easy to divide. It takes strength to unify.

• Find common ground, even when it’s hard, and focus relentlessly on it.

• Pay attention to the struggles of the majority. Most Canadians are working harder than ever to keep their heads above water. When their concerns go unheard, history shows us those rifts only deepen.

• Acknowledge past harms. Leadership isn’t about never making mistakes; it’s about taking responsibility when you do.

Rebuilding Trust, One Conversation at a Time

Trust can’t be legislated. It can’t be enforced with fines or built through social media campaigns. It’s built through actions, humility, and a genuine desire to listen and serve.

If you’re in an elected role or aspire to lead in your community, here’s what the campfire conversations taught me:

People want to feel heard. That’s it. They want to know someone cares about their worries, their struggles, and their future.

Unity doesn’t mean uniformity. It means embracing difference while focusing on what connects us.

Leadership is service. It always has been. It always will be.

As Canada moves forward, we need leaders who understand that true power lies in bringing people together. Not in winning over half the country while ignoring the other half. But in creating a sense of shared possibility again.

Because when people feel heard, when they feel hope, when they see leaders who choose courage over comfort, fear loses its grip. And that is how countries heal.

What do you think? Is your community feeling these same fractures? How do you see leadership showing up – is it uniting, or dividing?

I’d love to hear your reflections. Let’s keep this conversation going – around the campfire, around the boardroom table, and across this country millions call home.