When I was younger, I would give what my wife refers to as my “beauty pageant speech”. It went like this. “We are the luckiest human beings to have ever lived. We were born at the best time in human history – we live longer, have more freedom, and can live our lives to the fullest more than at any other time. And we were born into one of the best countries in the world, with opportunities for great education and health care, and no major calamities or wars in our lifetimes. We didn’t choose to be born so lucky; and we didn’t earn it — It just happened. And in my opinion, we owe it to human beings that were not born so lucky to do something with our lives.”

At the time, this speech served a very specific purpose: it helped with dating. My wife still remembers me giving this speech the night we met, so it worked. But it’s also something I passionately believed then, and still believe now. In fact, today I’d also add two more pieces of luck – to be born into a family that was able to provide me with opportunities, and to be born a white man. At the time I hadn’t realized the privilege that those two elements provided me, but if reinforces my conclusion even more. 

I saw elements of this philosophy in the television show “The Good Place”. If you haven’t seen the show, you really should (though warning, spoilers). It’s a unique combination of comedy and deep moral philosophy. One of the key philosophies covered by the show is called “Contracturalism” and is best summarized by the phrase “What we owe to each other as human beings?”. I would extend this not just to our fellow humans that exist today, but to the memory of all the other humans that have not been as fortunate as we are. Another major insight in the show is in the final season in an episode appropriately called “The Answer”. In it, one of the main characters states: “It turns out that life isn’t a puzzle that can just be solved one time and it’s done. You wake up every day and you solve it again.” It’s not the first step that is the most important – it is the next one.

Having an impact; making a better world, a step at a time; these are themes I’ve heard repeatedly from the politicians we’ve interviewed here at Elect STEM:

• I saw it in one of our earliest interviews, with MPP Deepak Anand, a provincial Conservative here in Ontario, who said: “… when you [give] back to the community, it’s like an addiction…”. 
• Dalton McGuinty, the former Premier of Ontario, told us: “I think it was Kant who said, ‘crooked timber as humankind is made of nothing entirely straight can be made.’. You know, we’re deeply flawed as human beings, but it’s an opportunity for us to make a contribution. […] But I just think politics and public service is one of the noblest callings.” 
• Dr. Jennifer McKelvie, a City Councillor in Toronto, said: “Do it, try, you won’t regret it […] this is the best job I’ve ever had. I enjoy it so much, I have no regrets. […] I’ve been able to see some amazing milestones in just the two years that I’ve been at City Hall in 2019, we voted to declare a climate emergency and change our greenhouse gas strategy to be net zero by 2050.” 
• Preston Manning, former Leader of the Official Opposition, wrote a book called “Do Something: 365 Ways You Can Strengthen Canada.” 

We often think people get into politics for the “wrong reasons”. I’m sure that’s true for some people in some places, but I haven’t seen it in the politicians we’ve met so far. 

There’s a lot of ways we can make the world better. It can be paralyzing if we try to focus on all of them. But if each of us take the next step in one or two important ways, we deliver on what we owe to each other, and those who have gone before. For me, I believe science has changed the world for the better. I want to ensure that it can keep doing so. That way, the next generation will also be the luckiest generation of human beings that has ever existed. For this to be true, science needs to be cross-partisan – it must be understood to be critically important in every political party, at every level of government, from coast to coast. That’s why I co-founded Elect STEM to make this vision a reality.

We’re here to help you “Do Something”. If you’re STEM-trained and you want to get involved in politics, reach out! Take the next step – we owe it to each other.