Welcome to Sears beers, knowers, and doers, a podcast about intuition. Do you know what that is? Intuition to me, is that inner sense for knowing that something is true and yet I have no proof, but there's so many definitions and there's so many ways it can come and we'll even be , bring together and share with you some amazing guests. You have some amazing life stories and also some insights into how intuition can come. And I'm looking to gather those crows in the trees.
I hope you're one of them. I hope that this podcast inspires you to be more connected to your intuition. And I hope that by doing that, we make the world a better place. Thanks for coming on this journey with me
Before we get started today, I would love to share some tools with you to help with stress and feeling overwhelmed, especially for the energetically sensitive person. Feel free to go to my store on my website at www dot healing, vitality.ca. Thanks so much for coming on this journey with me.
So I'm super excited today to reconnect with somebody I've known Mo to put a year on. It would be difficult. You probably 20 years. Yeah. And we met through a door knocking experience. So thank you so much, Chris Collins for joining me today and participating in this podcast. I really appreciate your time.
Well, it's , it's really my pleasure. Whenever you give a politician or a former politician, the opportunity to talk, we tend to take advantage of that. Well,
Yeah, and it's cool. I've had , uh , Nancy Hartling on here and we had a wonderful chat as well. So she got into politics late, but , uh, as a Senator, she, she definitely said that's part of her role is sharing what the heck they do. And so, yeah, it's interesting. So Chris tell you've foreshadowed a bit, but do you mind telling everybody around the world a little bit more about yourself?
Well, I'm an old semi old semi retired guy. I currently pay. I'm a maritime , married, happily married guy, and I've been married for over 25 years. I work currently as a political consultant, so I , that's why I say semi retired. I do some part-time work , uh , helping people navigate government, helping organizations navigate government, I should say. And , um , uh, in the past I spent 25 years of my early career in sales. So I love people love meeting people.
I love working with people and , um , I'm, I guess I can be considered a fairly convincing person. Uh, and , um, after politics , uh, I, or after, after my sales career, I went into, into politics. I ran , uh , for S for provincial election and I ran for city council and I won in city council. I sat there for about three and a half years, and then I won on I by-election to replace , uh, uh, the former premier. And , uh, I , I, I was a liberal MLA for 12 years or three terms.
I worked, I was a government whip . I served on many committees and I chaired some committees. Then I became a cabinet minister. Then we lost the election as a party, but I continued to serve as a opposition member and had a lot of fun doing that. I worked on various portfolios and learned a lot about government and , um , learn a lot about politics. Um, and then I moved on to , uh, we've won the following election. Oh, I, I was also , uh , a cabinet minister. Right.
I don't know if I mentioned that I was a cabinet minister as well. And then I, then I became a speaker of the house in 2014, and I served until a full term as speaker of the house until 2018. And then I, I ran as an independent, I had a falling out with my political party and the leader of the political party.
And I moved on to , uh , become an independent candidate because I really didn't think that I had much of a chance of winning the election, but I , I did want to run again and I wasn't going to be swayed from running just because I didn't agree with the leader of the , my former party. So I offered as an independent, I was , uh , quickly defeated. And , um, I fin I live now in the country about 50 minutes north of my old , uh, constituency and city and , um , on a river on seven acres.
And I have bear and Fox and deer and moose coming through every once in a while with my wife leaves that then , uh, my 13 year old Airedale terrier Guinness Jr . So he's looking at me right now while laying in the shade.
Oh , lovely. You know what? I did another podcast just before yours , about an hour before. And he just moved to the country this past year , um, during COVID. And so there's a theme today if I get out in nature. So I think it's fantastic moving out of town. How did that come about?
Well, we had a , uh , cottage , uh, ambassador river. Uh, we've had it for almost 20 years and after visiting some friends, we fell in love with the piece of land and immediately bought it , uh , uh, while standing on the land, talking to the owner on the phone, negotiated a price and bought it there on the spot. Um, and we, we had , uh, we built a retirement , uh , place there.
And so we moved in to the retirement place in 2018 after the election, you know, coincidentally my , my house in city as sold after being on the market for two years. And , uh , and it is the best medication I've ever been. I had the privilege of taking a, when it comes to , um, uh, your happiness and your, your balance, your , um , just your psyche, everything is just, it's just a fantastic thing to do. And , um, I can't hear neighbors.
I, my closest neighbor is a full-time neighbors over a kilometer away, so it's, it's fantastic. Wow.
Now, has there been time and different seas ? Like does winter still lovely because you have figured out how to be outside in winter?
Uh, yes. Um, uh , my wife even , uh, fell in love with ice fishing this year and she , uh, I like going every once in a while, but she went every single day and , um , and she would do it and I would get on the computer and do my consulting work. Um, but it's fantastic place to live, do some fishing , uh, um , in the spring summer and , and in the winter.
And I'm not a hunter, but there's lots of bad around here and there's lots of wildlife and, you know, it's challenging more challenging in the winter and I look forward to COVID being over. So then I'm able to travel because the plan is to spend a few months a year in the Caribbean or , uh, in Europe , uh , traveling in Portugal and Spain, we love it there and the Canary islands.
So that's what we , we just, I can take a little bit of winter, but I'm just to the point now where I hadn't planned on spending winters and it's a little much for me, it looks forward to that being fixed.
Awesome. Well, and the whole story of buying the land immediately, I mean, that's not an intuitive hit, and now that's springing this joy and this time of your life. I think that's just so awesome.
Yes. I guess , um, you know, I never thought of that that way. And I guess that's the way with only 98% of intuition is that you, you always see it from a , uh, a hindsight perspective and, and perhaps don't ever give it any credit. You know, the funny thing about intuition is that not everybody believes in tuition, but the funny thing is, is they always believe in the term counter-intuitive .
So how can you believe in the , in the term counter intuitive and use that when you, when you don't believe in intuition? So
Brilliant. You're the first one to say that. Thank you.
My pleasure. It's interesting.
It's interesting because it is so much easier to believe in the negative of many things. Um , the cynical of many things in life than it is to have hope or, or believe that something better is possible or that something that you can't explain is possible. So I that's fantastic. You can explain counter-intuitive right, right.
But you can't do it without accepting the definition and the meaning of intuition. Exactly. So it's critical.
I know I'm talking to a lawyer when they know language that, well, I
Am not a 25 years of sales that's
Oh, wait , is it from your, your battle with the pesticides?
I don't know if it's that or a lot of people think of that because a lot of my friends that I've met through politics are lawyers. Oh, no, I don't mind being called a lawyer lawyers. I fill it a very strong role in our society. Absolutely.
And we were guided by laws if we don't have people that can, God got us through loss, but through that process, and it's important that lawyers fulfill an extremely valuable service to our community, but they're often victims of being called lawyers and being called just like lawyers, politician , and salespeople, all three of them can be victims of negative chat .
Yeah. It's very true. I had a lawyer , um, who I interviewed just this past month and, and she speaks about how the law isn't necessarily logical, but it, or it is logical, but it doesn't necessarily fair at times. So it is interesting when you have to uphold something that you need somebody to interpret sometimes in order to give you the guidance, to understand it and navigate it and all the rest of it. And like you say, in the, in the government world, it is, it's, it's mostly about the laws.
Is it not?
It is because you're setting them right . When you're passing legislation, you're debating legislation and passing legislation and tweaking legislation. So that that's a good part of people's jobs. And people don't understand that they just think that it's spending or being frugal or, or being blamed for everything that , uh , you can't, it's somebody substansive that you can actually point blame to, regardless of whether they're involved or not. Yeah.
Yeah. It's fascinating. Again, it always seems to tip, it's easier to tip to the negative than focus on the positive. I look at Canada in general and I think, oh my gosh, we're so blessed. We complain about so much privilege. It's sad in a sense, but in another sense, it's, it's fascinating to me that our tax bill gives us so many benefits, be it medical or educational, or just the S the social security aspects of things.
And yet, like you say, the government is the brunt of a lot of quote unquote jokes, like lawyers and salespeople, and I'm through this whole COVID experience. I've been saying, I would not want to be responsible to make any decisions has the weight of, of all of that. It's something I don't think people realize necessarily. Yeah. You've lived you've, you've lived it. So I'm kinda happy you live in such a beautiful place now. Yeah. So you've been involved.
I am going to bring up something really profound that you've been involved in that I'm aware of, if it's okay. Which is the cycling, how did you, what prompted you to get involved in ?
Well, as you know, my, my son passed away in 2007 and , uh , my only son of pediatric onco , uh , pediatric cancer. And he had a wrapped in my Sara coma. Um, the Abbey Olark type of that, which was just a horrible four years for , for my family. And , um, after he was diagnosed in 2003, and he passed away in 2007, and I, you know, I was always trying to figure out the way that I could actually do something. I volunteer in different organizations and what have you.
But I thought that it would be a cathartic event for me. And it was , uh , it absolutely was . I joined the applied and was accepted to the Sears national kids cancer ride. And I was overweight. I hadn't driven a written a bicycle in many, many years. And in fact, I bought, I went and bought this expensive carbon fiber bicycle, and , uh , I get it back home and I didn't know how to shift the gears.
I was looking for the gear shifts on it , and I didn't realize they were in the brake handles , um , brake levers. So I had to actually learn how to drive a bicycle and train decided to do it in the late fall. And , um , I made the announcement and , uh, just after Christmas, publicly, we started raising money.
I started training and, you know, what , I cycled to every single kilometer of that ride that that teammate did , uh, in 2013 and , uh, from Vancouver to Halifax that dip my rear wheel in Halifax, in Vancouver, and I dipped the front wheel and in Halifax. And it was a , a heck of an experience. And I went back and did it again, and from Winnipeg to Halifax with the same group in 2016. And, you know, I was able to, my son, I had a book written about him called 10 needles or disagree on Francais.
And , uh, that book , um , it was a best seller in both English and in French. And the proceeds of the book graciously offered up by mortality lip. Uh , the author , um, uh, went to children's cancer and we've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars , uh , with that , uh , including some people that one gentleman that donated half a million dollars to the IWK hospital children's hospital in Halifax as a result of reading the book. So then , uh , my ride raised $125,000 .
And I think we had as a group, we raised almost $2 million site here . Yeah, it was, it was fantastic. And , and you know, what I , I was , uh, it was medicinal again , uh, it was a cathartic event. We laughed and cried all the way across it . We became very close as, as a group and I cycled 180 kilometers a day for 17 days in our group. And the other, the B group were doing 240 K a day. And there were, you know, elite riders. And so as a group, we would do 400 as a team.
We did 400 tab , the two groups combined, and then we leapfrogged over each other each night and slept and slept in the back of transport truck trailers , uh , with bunks built in the back . And I came right across the country with thanks to Sears or the late Sears, Canada, and , um, and many other sponsors. And, and , uh, a lot of people have found refuge and found the same cathartic event in it. And it , it's, it's a bit of a , uh , uh , cult.
Uh, I will admit the , uh, the , the snicker or serious national kids are , uh, cancer ride , uh , group is, is , uh , uh, and then now it's called , uh , uh , Canadian , uh , children's cancer, Canada's C3. Uh, so it's, it's a very , uh , it's a very good organization. And anyway, we we've , uh, because in Sean's memory, we've raised , uh, about a million dollars , uh, in , in to help kids with cancer. And your question, I know I went off time .
No, you went right on topic. I asked you about writing . Nope . You totally went right on topic. I asked you about the bike ride. Cause I wanted to highlight,
I knew I had to do it . It was intuitive and I knew I had to do it. And, you know, I putting it off a couple of years and then I decided one day I was just in so inspired because I would always speak out as an inspirational speaker to these writers as they went across Canada and I would always meet them in Monkton or Fredericton. And, and I decided to in right . It had to be done. And , um, you know, what, I never turned back, you know, it was a mission. Uh , there's no question.
It was a mission.
Yeah. Well , and beautiful things for you by the sounds of things and for cancer for children and , and the IWK, like how incredible, incredible, like amazing. And
Yeah , I also thought that my, I had a bit of a , um, a profile politically. So it was an opportunity to bring as speaker in 2016. And, and , uh , as a , as a member of the legislature in 2013 to bring awareness right across Canada and, you know , politicians cycling across Canada in his fifties, it's not pretty, you know, it, it, it did draw a lot of attention or a lot of , uh, it , it raised a lot of awareness and , uh , certainly , uh, um, I felt better about myself , um, at the end of it.
And it was a , it was a good emotional purge .
Sure. Well, and , and like you say, you've now got comrades who survived that the same experience, right? Like you , you've got friendships, that'll last a lifetime.
These people, I mean, all you have to do is make a phone call and they're there for you. Yeah. Yeah.
It's, there's a, there's a tribe that you've, you've been initiated into.
That's right . Yeah.
Cool. So how does, how does something like the land happen up north and how does something like, I need to get on, I need to buy a bike. Like you put it off for awhile . How does the fight go to, okay, now's the time I do it? Or, or how does it actually come? Everybody has a different way. Intuition comes to you in quotes because sometimes it's not a receiving, it's actually a doing our knowing. So, so yeah. Do you mind shedding some light on that?
Well, you know, I'm torn between knowing whether intuition is , is another sense or whether it's something that comes from a, a logical, logical conclusion after inputting a lot of data into your mind, whether you know, emotional data, logical data, empirical data, financial data, you , you, you make all those. And also, you know, stuff that's on the periphery that's hauled in to help you put it together as a decision.
And then it becomes, then you get a sense of intuition comes to you as a, how should I put it ? It, it comes to you as a, ah , it's just not your Rica moment, I guess. And then all of a sudden you have confidence in not decision if you're not using your do with decision, and you're doing that something that's counter intuitive , then , then it's , uh , it doesn't have that logic. It doesn't have that.
Uh, it , it doesn't come to you as, as being something that you, you want to do, and you may end up doing it anyways, but you don't have the passion behind it or the con , because you don't have the confidence behind it. Uh , you know , and sometimes you're successful with that too, because you just have personal drive and you work hard and it just comes to you.
But when you make a decision with intuition and you have the passion that comes from the idea that, you know, you're right , making the right decision, it's a lot easier and a lot more fun to do.
Yeah. And , and that's a key word that people don't talk about much is the passion part of it. Because like you say, you , anybody can be successful in the job, but if they have a passion for something else, then a lot of times the success or the joy or the periphery fuller life presents itself to , I think very interesting, the
Human mind, the human mind is just , uh , it's just not understood. I mean, you , you were absorbing from the minute you open your eyes and your ears , uh , as a, as a child, I think somebody told me one time that you, 95% of your knowledge, whether it's depth perception of what is given to you in the first five years of life, and then everything else based on, on that, your interactions, everything is done in the first five years.
And, you know, and , and then once have that process instilled in you. Some people find that , that intuition faster. Some people will find that from a decision-making perspective, that they'll be able to draw in at a luck , a lot quicker.
And , uh , you know, I've , I've sensed it in decisions that I've made from Paula, you know, joining politics when you're taking a leap of faith and leaving a good job in , in business , uh , working for an international or multinational food , uh , conglomerate, and you're having a good living you're you're .
And then all of a sudden, you , you take that leap into politics where you're only guaranteed , uh , four years , uh , not even not, you're not even guaranteed that for years, quite frankly. And to know that that that's the right decision to make and that you can win. And, you know, I see a lot of people, but make the wrong decision when it comes to running in elections, because they're , they're running. They think they can win, but they can't, it's just not possible for them.
And that's something that I've been able to have this intuition about calling elections. I can, I've been able to call federal and provincial elections Federalist within three seats and provincial elections within one or two seats. And , uh , before the vote comes down. And , but that base of that intuition of what is going to happen is based on a lot of knowledge that I've gained politically.
I, I traveled, I traveled the province, so I know the people of new Brunswick before I went into politics. I was like I say , I was in sales and the territory was in new Brunswick. Uh, so, so you had a sense of what that was.
Right. And isn't it interesting how previous experience adds to the data like you would say to help you make that decision? The awareness of how the province works, probably served you well. And in many of your roles in politics, and you didn't know you were doing collecting data when you were a salesperson for politics. No,
No, you didn't then, but like I say, you know, it it's , it's not because you sit down and revisit all that data. You sit, you sit down if you're, if you, if you're in the right spot and you have to make a decision, you , you call on that data subconsciously. And I think that that's what intuition, that sense of intuition is.
Yeah. Brilliant, brilliant. Love the wording. Not everybody puts words on stuff like that. And it's so true. It's so true. It's just like a litmus test. You stick it in there . That's that's excellent. No. So we've talked a bit about a few of the ways intuition has shown up in your life. Is there any other stories you'd like to share with people about it?
Well , um, it's happened a lot. I guess the , the one I was having a very tough time decision , uh , deciding whether to leave municipal politics and , uh , run against Bernard Lord again, the former premier in new Brunswick, very nice gentleman. And , um , I, and I decided that I wouldn't, because I said to myself, well, what's going to happen is I think he's going to lose the election provincially.
And it's hard to when it gets to sitting premier, but I think he's gonna , uh, when they , uh, he's going to lose the election provincially, but he'll win a seat which will lead to an eventual by-election right . Him stepping down and, and you know what I called it , uh , Brian glant ran instead of me in that seat. And I knew he was going to lose me lost.
And then, you know , uh , three months later, I'm in Australia with my son and he steps down and now I just hit the send button on up , uh , previously written. I gave him 24 hours after his resignation. And I, I hit the send button on a previously written, a press release saying that I was going to run in that, in that seat for the , uh , run for the liberal nomination in that seat. And so it all worked out. I, you know, I thought long and hard about that.
I thought for months and months about it, and I just came to the conclusion that, that isn't a good idea and that , um , uh, this is what I should do and be patient. And , uh, and it was counterintuitive . He was like , uh, you know, when we have to run in politics, you , you have the bug and you know what it was. Right. And everything, everything worked out. Yeah.
Fascinating. Fascinating. Because that patient set pause is also a part of it. Very key. Yeah. Knowing when to go and when to go slow.
Well, you know, some people call it a gut feeling. Some people call it intuition, but for me, it's just a feeling that came to me after thinking about it for so long and weighing everything. And then I felt super, super confident in my decision after I did after agonizing over it for months. And you know what, there it was, it was the right decision. Yeah.
Beautiful. Beautiful. Well , listen, Krista , this has been fantastic. Thank you again for your time.
It's always nice talking to you, Heather.
Yeah . Right from that first visit on, on my doorstep. So yeah ,
I remember that. Yeah. It was a delightful, we both had a very strong passion in fighting for cosmetic pesticides. We just didn't get the logic to it, right ? No.
Well, it's still there. The, that bubble's still out there waiting to be. We just have to be patient maybe.
No, I , I think there's , it's time for action now. Um, uh , the, the current mayor has made it very, very easy to spray , uh, and has changed change things. And that, that has to be fixed. We have to go back to where we were in 2007. So there's some work that has to be done. Absolutely. Oh , well,
Here's our call to action because it drives me crazy. It just drives me crazy. Doesn't make any sense. No, it's the counterintuitive thing. People think about it long enough. They will know that it makes no sense to just spray their lawn that they sit on and their dogs eat off of and not have it cause any impact on your kids play on and not have it. And you're the air you breathe at night and , and, and yeah, that's another podcast, Chris,
Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day. Take care of great talking to you.
Thank you so much for giving us your time today. We truly appreciate our guests for sharing their stories and insights about how intuition has impacted their lives. And I'm so grateful for Peter trainer for his time and giving me this original music. It's now your turn. It's your turn to listen and act on your own intuition and help make the world a better place until next time, keep seeing being, knowing, and doing. If you liked this podcast, please share it.
If you want to find others, like it, go to www dot healing, vitality.ca or wherever you would find your podcasts. We would love to have you join us on this journey. Come be a Crow sitting in the tree, be part of our community.