On Change, Leadership and the Boomer Corps

(this posting is actively being edited, Jan. 20…)

I’m a retired media guy and writer who watched my RCAF father struggle to hide his deep concern for family and country during the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a teenager, I watched Canada lurch through a national crisis of identity, even as the rest of the world roiled with discontent and social protest.

And here we are at another inflection point.

For all of his failings – and they are legion – Donald Trump* has done Canada a positive. We have been sleep-walking as a nation, smugly coasting along as a ‘nice’ country with polite, friendly people. We were ‘peacekeepers’, secure in our G7 membership, harbouring maybe a little condescension about our more violent cousins to the south. And we were also naïve, and a bit disingenuous, expecting a pal to be a pal forever.

Of course, that has changed, in ways even ardent pessimists didn’t imagine.

And we have changed, in ways still evolving. Gone is trust, gone is a sense of shared comity. There’s an argument to be made that the mistrust is with the current American government aka the Trump Administration, but it impossible to ignore that 77 million Americans voted for the turmoil they are now experiencing. Yes, that’s a minority of the votes cast (some ‘landslide’), but that’s still a lot of people.

So far, we seem to be making the right noises, but the course ahead is fraught. The broadest stroke is obvious: less reliance on the United States for anything, be it as a trading partner, a defence partner or even as a rational player in global affairs. Mark Carney seems to have a pragmatic eye, making economic and diplomatic moves to wean us away from an over-reliance on our increasingly irrational neighbour. His actions are not popular in some quarters, but that will always be the case when dealing with the political realities of the day. Canada should be on a war footing, literally: as long as countries (including the U.S.) continue to have malign ambition, we have to be ready and able to resist them.

One of the more interesting ideas floating around is the concept of national service for young Canadians. Norway, Sweden, Denmark and France all have some form of national service, often a foundation for personal growth and career development for younger people. But here’s another possibility worth exploring: national service for older Canadians. For lack of a better phrase, call it the ‘Boomer Corps’. Tap into the millions of retired Canadians ready and willing to offer their expertise to their communities and their country. Every single individual in this massive cohort comes with the knowledge and experience of a lifetime, in every conceivable discipline. Teachers, medical professionals, police officers, organizational experts, personnel managers, investment gurus, media and communications specialists, military and security advisors, skilled tradespeople, social workers, engineers, food producers- all with decades of experience and a real incentive to contribute to the society in which their children and grandchildren will live and prosper in the years ahead. (Not incidentally, we’ve heard for years how Canada trails other countries in ‘competitiveness’. Imagine what a national service initiative like a ‘Boomer Corps’ could do for that).

For all of this to happen, we need leadership, and we need to maintain our national focus. The old coddled ways of coasting along, out of shape, not putting in the work necessary to get fit as a nation, are over.

I’ve been around long enough to remember two existential threats to Canada as a nation, including the real possibility of nuclear war. In 2025, we have another threat, which is the reason proper leadership is so important. Time to get at it, and get ‘er done.  

*It’s easy to go all ad-hominem on Trump, with various nicknames like Trumpty Dumpty. But let’s talk about Trump as a person, not a caricature (although he can be both at the same time).

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 Tom New, Gatineau, Quebec | January 2026 (updated from May 2025)