But today's challenges are sweeping over us at a much faster rate. The pace of change is accelerating way beyond our capacity to adapt as individuals. What should be our most trusted institutions are not earning our confidence. Centralized power structures continue to exercise control. Those driving the agenda benefit most from the policies that are implemented. That's why how we make policies and who makes them, who is driving that agenda, matters.

The folks who have been driving our agenda in recent years clearly need to have their fingers peeled from the levers of power. “Since 1992, the government has repeatedly promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and support clean energy technology. However, since then, Canada has missed two separate emission reduction targets and is likely to miss the 2020 target as well; in fact, emissions have increased by over 15 percent.”

Meanwhile the world is moving forward. Marija Kramer is Head of Responsible Investment Business at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). She is responsible for all aspects of responsible investing (RI) offerings, including policy development as well as research and data screening services covering more than 13,000 global companies, for institutions seeking to fully integrate Environment, Social and Governance considerations into their investment decision-making. In this Forbes Q&A she makes it clear that investors have reached a tipping point: "Unprecedented votes this year on climate change resolutions at some of the largest energy companies, including Exxon Mobil, would suggest mainstream institutions have crossed the Rubicon on the materiality of climate change."

In China, the war on coal reached a fever pitch this month. "Steel production has been halved in major steel cities, coal banned in China's coal capital, factories closed down for failing pollution inspections, and hundreds of officials sacked for failing to meet environmental targets," Kirsty Needham writes in the Sydney Morning Herald. Multinationals and Chinese companies have complained the shutdowns and factory closures will hurt business and raise prices. But, unlike what happens when polluting industries push back against government policy in Australia and here in North America, they have been given short shrift by China's Ministry for Environment Protection. The ministry's director of environmental impact assessment, Cui Shuhong, held a press conference to debunk the complaints, saying polluting companies will be phased out because they "disrupt the market order". "Healthy and faster economic growth can happen along with an improved environment," he said.

Those of us intent on changing our political culture are not alone. Mike Schreiner wants to get elected to the Ontario Legislature "for the right reasons, not the easy reasons." In an online Town Talk last week he said this: "Like many people in Ontario I've started to lose trust with what's going on in Queens Park. I'm tired of the political games, I'm tired of the backroom deals, I'm tired of the attack ads going back and forth between parties, I just want to offer solutions that put people first." When challenged if he could see himself end up in a position to drain the swamp, Mike was unequivocal. "I don't have to imagine it, I can see it unfold in British Columbia."

Peter Bevan-Baker remains the most popular party leader in his province of PEI and although he hails from Scotland, his great-great-grandfather had also lived in Canada, it turned out. He had moved here as a teenager and worked here his whole adult life. He was a successful newspaper publisher, author and on-and-off politician. Oh, he also helped found the country: His great-great-grandfather was George Brown. "I sort of feel, in some odd way, I'm completing a grand circle here," Chris Hannay of the Globe and Mail quotes Peter during a recent interview in his office below the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, where he now sits as an MLA.

"Andrew Weaver is an internationally recognized pioneer of models that represent Earth's physical systems at a modest resolution, facilitating the simulation of climate over tens of thousands of years," writes Peter Fairley in Nature. "His ascent from academic to political power broker is a far cry from the attacks on climate scientists that are under way in the United States. But there are US researchers who dare to dream that they too can tilt the political balance. In fact, dozens have declared the intent to run for local, state or national office..."

I'm reminded of the poignancy of Preston Manning's story about the road sign as I read this CBC News piece about Site C: "Time has moved on," Robert McCullough explained at a Vancouver hearing held by the B.C. Utilities Commission in Vancouver to review the project. "These huge megadams take too long to construct. They're expensive to build, and you have to plan them a decade in advance. The competition is cheaper. It's a lot less risky, and you only have to order them a year or two in advance. The economics have changed."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swept to power in October of 2015 by raising expectations. He offered hope that we would emerge from a decade of global isolation and stagnation by finally entering the 21st century. But now, two years later, his Sunny Ways are faltering. The Liberal strategy to walk the fence and renege on the promise of bold leadership isn't working out so well for them. The Angus Reid Institute reports that the Liberals and Conservatives are running neck and neck in the polls again. Just like in PEI, backing away from Electoral Reform has hurt the Liberal Party's credibility.

Turning parliamentarians into proxies for partisan agendas is no way to run a country. It takes more than three voices to represent Canada and few have been more outspoken on this than Rafe Mair. "I think it must be understood, perhaps conceded is the better word, that the Green Party isn’t like other parties and probably never will be," he wrote in this blog post a little over a year ago. "If it struggles to be what it never can be, it will go the way of Technocracy and Esperanto...  ...I’ve not spoken to Ms. May on this but I infer from what she has said and done that she realizes power to change is far more important then the trappings of office, where change will usually be thwarted by the establishment in one uniform or another." Rafe Mair died last week at the age of 85.

Change is upon us. Rapid change. And the old institutional traditions of partisan politics and false majorities with absolute power are no longer serving us adequately. The only hope we have is to adapt, not through evolution or mechanical systems but through cultural transformation.