This summer, my church hosted a series called Inspirations for Well-Being. People shared things that contribute to their well-being, including backyard gardening, music, painting, wilderness experiences, and being in community. The series culminated last week with a reflection on the source behind all these inspirations: God the Creator and people.

God is amazing. People are amazing, especially those who rise from the ashes and create something beautiful.

Before continuing, I should offer a disclaimer: this article is not about comparing ourselves to others or becoming jealous of their accomplishments. Hence the title is Inspirations for Well-Being, not Jealousy for Depression.

Over the years, many people have inspired me. Some are well-known public figures, while others are people I have encountered personally. Their stories remind me of the resilience, creativity, and courage that human beings are capable of.

As America’s tariff war shows no signs of letting up, I think sport can offer an uplifting allegory to the struggle we as a nation are facing as the most economically and militarily powerful country on earth actively seeks to harm us and take away our independence.

Everyone who has ever participated in sports can relate to being a massive underdog playing against a heavily-favoured team.

It’s not an enviable position to be in sports and it most certainly is not a great situation in the real world of geopolitics.

And yet, it’s this context of the huge imbalance in strength between Canada and the U.S. where sport can provide a fitting metaphor.

There hasn’t been a sports story so intriguing to me as the Kahwi Leonard alleged salary cap circumvention scandal that’s played out across the last year.

For those who haven’t been following, Leonard, a star with the Los Angeles Clippers, was paid millions of dollars by team sponsors for “endorsement” deals, where he wasn’t required to do anything.

He was a “celebrity endorser” for a tree planting company, but did not make any appearances, plant any trees or even make any social media posts about the company, despite being paid more money than Robert Downey Jr., Drake Leonardo DiCaprio and other top stars combined.

An NBA investigation following initial investigative reporting from Pablo Torre, who has done 14 podcast episodes and counting on the story, confirmed the reports and NBA commissioner Adam Silver penalized the team by taking away five first round draft picks, fining ownership and suspending several high ranking members of the Clippers.

In August, 99.7 percent of Dynacare laboratory professionals voted in favour of a strike mandate.

On Sept. 8, they went on strike. On the same day, they were ordered back to work without a fair deal after the government appealed to the labour board to have them declared essential workers.

It is disappointing to see the government siding with this American, for-profit company over Manitoban workers. Dynacare and the union agreed in March that no essential services agreement was needed, and that agreement was documented with the Labour Board at the time. The government waited seven months and intervened at the last minute of negotiations, effectively removing the only leverage these underpaid workers had in negotiations with an American-owned, for-profit company.

Dynacare has had a monopoly on outpatient lab services in Manitoba since 2017 and has no competition to incentivize them to pay their workers fairly. The government gave them another contract in 2025, extending their monopoly for five years.