It’s that time again. The lead up to the elections in Canada.

For the most part, we’re all going to vote the way we usually vote.

We’ve already decided because our social media feeds give us more of what we want:

Our opinion.

And the people on “the other side” aren’t going to convince me otherwise.

Just as I’m not going to convince “them” to see my side.

Most of us are blind to the pros of the other side. We see only the cons.

It is exhausting.

And it’s sad because it divides us.

We can’t have civil conversations. Because some of us think the other must be stupid to believe what they believe.

We’ve got a month more to go.

With the bad-mouthing, the memes, the jokes, the anger, and the frustration.

I will say this much.

Canada is NOT broken.

Is it perfect? No.

Does it need work? Yes.

This is what I think:

Any politician that is trying to tell you that Canada is broken.

Or that immigrants or trans people or any “other” minority are the reasons for your problems.

Or that snappy slogans are going to solve complicated issues.

Those politicians are not seeking to build. They’re seeking to divide and destroy.

It’s that simple.

I’m reminded of Edgar Guest’s poem:

I watched them tearing a building down,

A gang of men in a busy town.

With a ho-heave-ho and lusty yell,

They swung a beam and a sidewall fell.

I asked the foreman, “Are these men skilled,

The men you’d hire if you had to build?”

He gave me a laugh and said, “No indeed!

Just common labor is all I need.

I can easily wreck in a day or two

What builders have taken a year to do.”

And I thought to myself as I went my way,

Which of these two roles have I tried to play?

Am I a builder who works with care,

Measuring life by the rule and square?

Am I shaping my deeds by a well-made plan,

Patiently doing the best I can?

Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,

Content with the labor of tearing down?

Is the person you want to vote for a builder or a wrecker?

It’s easy to wreck something.

It takes skill and hard work to build.

If your only “experience” has been a back-bencher in politics, maybe you should leave the building to people who have experience building things.

Please don’t vote for a wrecker.