From Policy to Impact: Sandra Hodzic-Falk on Advocacy, Leadership, and Creating Meaningful Change!

So just thinking about the current Canadian landscape and more into entrepreneurship and business and what you were just talking about in terms of impact and how you can make that impact.

What should small and medium sized business owners or just business owners in general be thinking? Yeah, absolutely.

Right.

Politics and world conflict matters and not just what's happening in the United States, but what's happening abroad, too.

We're in a great time of big discussions around tariffs and natural resources and gas and trade and looking at diversifying that relationship away from our number one trading partner in the U.S. to other countries.

I just finished Team Canada trade mission to Mexico, which was great.

But that's an example of Canada taking the bull by the horns and really looking at strengthening our collaborations with other nations and looking at what do traditional trade routes look like.

And when I say traditional, I mean like traditional indigenous trade routes.

One thing that we're looking at is resurrecting that free flow of goods and services.

So that was a really great trip for that.

I know the government of Canada is looking at doing a lot more trade missions.

So looking at what does that landscape look like and who are they investing in and letting that drive how they organize themselves operationally and strategically as small and medium-sized enterprises.

The conflict and what's been going on in Iran and Venezuela all signals, I think, the expansion of the Canadian barrel.

It's really a really great indicator for us.

That we have something valuable that is ethically sourced that the rest of the world is interested in.

And this is kind of Canada's time to shine.

And even if you're not in the business of natural resources or oil or gas or whatever, I think it's an interesting core concept.

discussion that so much else depends upon when it comes to affordability, when it comes to trade, when it comes to artificial intelligence, whatever, right? So I think looking at that broad picture, what's happening in the world? What's happening in Canada? What is the Carney administration trying to drive forward? Is there a majority or minority government, right? We're trying to change that right now.

There could be a by-election, right? The budget hasn't been passed.

All of those things aren't just for the policy nerd like me.

It's not just for the political long.

It's

actually a discussion that impacts our business, our stability, our GDP, our growth, our workforce development, that kind of thing.

The other part of that question, Lisa, is we have such an untapped potential when it comes to our next generation of workers.

Yeah.