SHANE​ WARREN

If you’re coming to Mardi Gras this weekend, come for joy and bring responsibility with you. Let it be loud. Let it be beautiful. Let it be safe. Let it be the kind of night that tells every kid watching from the sidelines: you are not alone.

Trump wasn’t a candidate despite his cruelty. He was a candidate because of it. Not because everyone who voted for him is cruel. That’s lazy thinking and it’s not what I believe. But because he gave a certain kind of person, along with a certain kind of impulse, public permission.

Every few years, a chorus emerges: “What if we ran government like a business?” The logic feels neat and tidy. CEOs cut costs, strike deals, and whip teams into shape. Surely, they could do the same with a nation-state.

Those who have worked with me know I carry a deep fascination with politics. Not in the shallow theatre of who “wins the day,” but in the deeper way policy shapes how we live, how we feel, and even how we connect with one another. Politics, at its heart, is human psychology in action. And if we take a moment to look honestly at what’s happening in the world today, it’s hard not to feel a little unsettled.

Let’s get curious. Let’s ask: Are we raising athletes, or are we raising humans? Are we coaching discipline, or are we conditioning dominance? Are we honouring the game, or just keeping score? Because when we let sport teach emotional intelligence, accountability, and grace under pressure, we build people who can handle life, not just the win.

It’s funny, isn’t it? The way we can sit comfortably in our lives, sipping our drinks, clicking away on our laptops, all while a world of dysfunction and upheaval swirls outside, barely making a ripple in our calm.

The right to self-determination stands as a cornerstone of human rights, embodying the essence of individual and collective freedom.