If you had the gift of a year off, in a paused world, what would you work on?
I would work on unwinding, and perhaps truly enjoying the privilege of peace, tran-quility, and the unbelievable benefit that we have by virtue of being Canadian. Perhaps I would start to contribute to a solution to child poverty and in particular the poverty that we see in our own backyards. If we want to build successful societies and a thriving and sustainable way of life, we need to address child poverty and the marginalization of Indigenous people.
What message would you put on a billboard, and where?
“Everything works out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out—it’s not the end,” in the hallways of as many high schools as possible.
What does being Canadian mean to you?
We are blessed with security, respect, the rule of law, resilience, determination, caring for each other, and optimism in a way and combination that few others on earth can imagine.
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
“Joy.”
Natalie Panek
“I would love it if everybody reminded themselves to dream big and believe that anything is possible.”
Birthplace Calgary, AB
What age do you feel 32
Occupation Rocket scientist
Book you gift most Failure Is Not an Option
Favourite drink Hot chocolate with Baileys
Favourite place in Canada Rocky Mountains
What is your vision for Canada in twenty years?
People need to be curious. We need a Canada that has more everyday explorers. People who question without restraint, who think intelligently about the world we live in, and who are willing to work on things we know are hard, because that is how we’re going to solve some of the most pressing issues of our time and build innovative and sustainable communities.
What is your view on feminism?
Being willing and confident to speak your voice in situations where you might be in a minority or working in a non-traditional field.
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
Particularly in engineering and STEM, there’s been a lot of momentum toward getting more young women involved in these careers. The numbers have been stagnant for a long time. We have to look at women and minorities in STEM with a wider lens and examine the resources that are needed at different stages of people’s careers. Social media is inspiring young women and girls to see themselves in all kinds of positions, like rocket scientists, palaeontologists, or geologists.
What advice would you have for a young woman going into STEM?
It is okay to fail and to not succeed on your first try. If you can get past that fear and the vulnerability of trying something new or being scared to go outside your comfort zone, you really learn a lot about yourself and what you can accomplish and give back to your community.
Tell us about a time when you had to summon all of your courage.
I tried to get an internship at NASA during my undergraduate engineering degree. There was an opportunity for one Canadian student. I ended up applying for that position four years in a row. After the second, third, and fourth rejection, you start to question whether you can really make it. I ended up calling NASA directly, and over the course of that phone call, I was offered the position.
What has been a defining moment in your personal or professional life?
Getting my pilot’s licence in university. In the evenings and during weekends, I attended ground school at the Springbank Airport in Calgary. It was in those moments when I was in the plane or doing my first solo flight that I realized, “Hey, one day I could be an astronaut. If I can fly a plane by myself, I can do anything.”
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
“Dream Big.”
Julie Payette
“I grew up thinking there was nothing impossible for me.”
Birthplace Montreal
What age do you feel 53
Occupation Governor General of Canada
Favourite drink Coffee
Favourite place in Canada Montreal
Did being a woman affect your experience of being an astronaut?
No. It is not a consideration. In space, the discriminating factor is competence. Up until very recently, the commander of the Space Station was a woman and she was on her third flight to the Space Station, second time as commander. She holds the record for the longest cumulative time in space, and the most space walks by a female astronaut. It really is a place where if you demonstrate your skills, competence, leadership, and team playing, you will succeed.
What is your vision for Canada in twenty years?
To continue the path we’re engaged in. We are very privileged because we’re rich, peaceful, we have a democracy and institutions that are based on the rules of law, sharing, and rights for everybody. We demonstrate it in our policies all the time, and I think our values are pretty clear. We want to be partners and we need to continue like that. I see Canada taking on an even more important role in expressing itself and encouraging other partners and with the distribution of wealth. Sharing, tolerance, and openness enriches the country and the world.
What advice do you have for young women considering going into the sciences and engineering?
Please don’t hesitate. It’s so much fun. It’s a myth—a complete urban myth—that it’s difficult and not fun. It’s completely the opposite and it offers fantastic careers that lead everywhere. With a background in science and problem solving like engineering, you can pretend to be anything.
Why do you think Canada should be investing in space?
Canada is a leader in carving out the future, investing in what’s needed today and in what is important to people, to the environment, and to resources so that we can continue to influence, collaborate, and work with other partners. Some of our wealth has to go into exploration, discovery, and research, because the only way we move forward is by pushing the envelope. In Canada, we invest less than three percent of our GDP in R&D in the microscopic and the macroscopic. Space exploration is a very small and very important part of that, because our country depends on space technology for its communication, monitoring its resources, and mineralogy—and these are necessary because we’re so big. If our telecommunications satellites gave in, I can tell you that every single Canadian would know it immediately. It’s part of our lives.
You are also an artist and a performer. I’m curious about how you see the intersection of art and science?
That’s one of my favourite topics; they’re completely intertwined, and it’s another urban myth that scientists have very little in common with artists. It’s the opposite. I give the following example: A first violinist in an orchestra is artistic, creative, and they make that violin sing and that’s based on a fundamental and rigorous base of how music works, how you read music, and how you put your fingers. It’s based on something technical and rigorous with a lot of practice. It’s the same with the scientist.
A scientist who is doing research in a lab on some cancer cells, this is all based on a very rigorous, technical base. But it’s their creativity that makes them push the envelope and discover the new path.
What is your view of feminism?
I do believe that being different or being a minority within a majority group, you will have to prove yourself more. It takes a lot of effort and more effort than if you were part of the norm. If you look like everyone else around and you have gone through the same background and the same studies, it’s a lot easier to fit in and make your mark. Women in non-traditional fields or in countries where women don’t have equal rights, that takes an enormous amount of effort and sometimes it’s absolutely impossible.
In a country like Canada, it is possible. It’s one of the places where the equality when you’re born is the best. Not just for women, but for anybody who ends up being in a minority. Diversity is accepted and sought and cherished and celebrated.
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Heather Payne
“The best time to start a business was yesterday. The second-best time is today. There’s never going to be a ‘perfect’ time, so you may as well just jump in.”
Birthplace Brampton, ON
What age do you feel 30
Occupation CEO of HackerYou College of Technology
Book you gift most The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Favourite drink Whiskey sour
Favourite place in Canada Toronto
How has your view of feminism changed over your lifetime?
My eyes are open now. Though I’ve always been a feminist, I was blind to just how unfair things can be for women until a few years ago. Now, as I run my business and in everything I do, feminism is a huge force in my life, but I prefer not to just talk or think about it...whenever I can, I like to take action.
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
Men need to step up at home—and women need to let them/encourage them/stop doing more than their share. Men need to do as much child care and housework as women. Men and women need to split parental leave. A government parental leave policy that doesn’t just allow for men to stay home for a period of time but actively encourages it will be the only thing that makes paternity leave normal. And until it’s normal, we won’t be truly equal.
What has been a defining moment in your personal or professional life?
Professionally, the decision to lease our 7,000-square-foot office space. We moved in back in 2014, and the annual rent was the same as HackerYou’s entire revenue the year before. I had to scale, and quickly. But there’s nothing like a bit of pressure to help you reach a goal. We added another 5,000 square feet in 2015 and now operate out of a 12,000-square-foot facility—and it’s perfect for us in every way.
Personally, the defining moment of my life was the moment I met my husband. Marrying the right person is so important, and my husband and I are perfect partners in every way. Not only do I get to be myself, but I’ve actually become a better version of myself through knowing him.
What is your vision for Canada in twenty years?
I would love to see Canadians welcome the future and further embrace technology. We are only as capable as each member of our society, and to secure a future for our children and our children’s children, we need to ensure that our population has the skills needed to do the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past.
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
“Dauntless.”
Mia Pearson
“Success is building incredible organizations with passionate teams and watching that next generation you’ve mentored take off.”
Birthplace Fort Frances, ON
What age do you feel? 42
Occupation Entrepreneur
Book you gift most The Trusted Advisor by David Maister
Favourite drink Red wine
Favourite place in Canada Banff, AB
What does Canada need more and less of?
Canada needs more boldness in business, more scalable entrepreneurship like big businesses. We tend to underestimate ourselves as a country and as individuals. We need more confidence in ourselves that we can take risks and compete on the global stage. Canadians need to make fun of ourselves less. Think of the jokes and the things that are always said about us. Sometimes we promote those and play it up. We need to do less of that. We need to be less focused on the success of other markets and do more to celebrate the Canadian successes.
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
An active commitment of the most senior leaders in this country. Think about what Justin Trudeau did, appointing a cabinet that is 50 percent women. He’s said it took two years to get there, two years of actively pursuing women and women saying no many times before he was able to get someone to lead. It’s not about quotas; we need to change the way we approach putting women into those senior roles. We need to have women become part of the decision-making process. Women tend to undervalue themselves. It’s natural—it’s the way they’ve been raised. You see it on the investment side. Male investors are way more bullish about their results than female investors are. It’s no different in a job interview. But if you have women on the interview panel, they will recognize that the conservatism that comes across in an interview does not reflect on the female candidate’s ability to deliver equal, if not higher, results.
Women have been socialized to not be comfortable with self-promotion. They think it’s a dirty word. If we do not get out there, how will our daughters or the next generation of young women believe it’s possible? All they continue to see on the cover of the business magazines is male CEOs. I talk to women a lot about the fact that if they’re not willing to step up, nothing is going to change. Role modelling is a huge part of women believing they can do those roles, either within the organizations they’re working for today or the ones they want to move into. Between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, young girls’ confidence drops 50 percent and they start to become self-conscious. That’s the time when we need to pump that confidence in and expose them to all the opportunities that are available to them. I took my daughter to the Women and the World conference. When she heard Hilary Clinton, you should have seen my daughter’s face. Hilary’s so articulate and smart and, with everything going on with Trump, we watched her with such admiration and respect. As moms, we need to let our girls see those things and be exposed to those opportunities.
What does being Canadian mean to you?
Canada’s brand is stronger than it’s ever been. Being Canadian means promoting and respecting diversity. It means welcoming and being supportive of our own people but also of other people around the world who need our help. It means thinking about the environment and our long-term future, and balancing that with the needs of businesses.
How has your view of feminism changed over your lifetime?
The word “feminism” has moved from something that people mocked to something that is highly respected today. More recently, we’re seeing that men and women are equally behind it. I love that my son supports his sister, his mom, and the roles women play in the world. Young boys growing up now don’t see feminism as a “thing.”
What is the best investment you’ve made?
Definitely my businesses. Investing in your own company, vision, and ideas. The outcome is just unbelievable.
If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?
“Bold.”
Vivienne Poy
“Canada needs more green energy and fewer Canada geese.”
Birthplace Hong Kong
What age do you feel Vibrant 76
Occupation Retired from public life, and continuing to write non-fiction
Favourite drink Water with fresh mint
Favourite place in Canada Our cottage in Muskoka, ON
What will it take to achieve gender parity?
Quotas from top down, a successful policy like in Scandinavian countries. This is the only way educated and intelligent women will have opportunities. Women don’t have the “old boys’ network” that has been around for generations.
Tell us about a time when you had to summon all of your courage.
I gave one of my kidneys to my son over nine years ago. He was suffering and the waiting list for a kidney transplant was at least fifteen years at that time. It turned out very well for both of us. My health has not been affected at all.
Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently when you were first starting out?
I would have kept my own surname in English (Lee instead of Poy), even though I use my surname in Chinese (Chinese women always keep their own surnames). No matter how hard I work and how much I have achieved, many people still refer to me as “Mrs. Poy,” as if being married is the only thing that matters!
What has been a defining moment in your personal or professional life?
Completing my PhD, as well
as being recognized as a scholarly researcher and author.
What message would you put on a billboard, and where?
“Make friends, not enemies.” I’d put it at all major sections of the 401 highway in Ontario.
What is your vision for Canada in twenty years?
Increase trade with other countries, and be less dependent on the United States.
As a recognized leader in both the business world and in public office as the first Canadian of Asian descent to be appointed to the Senate of Canada, what have you learned about service and leadership?
I am passionate about public service and have gone out of my way to help. Canadians across the country need to know that public servants in Ottawa care about them. As an entrepreneur, having superior products and understanding customer psychology were keys to success. Service was always a top priority. As for leadership, I show by example, and work much harder than my employees. I don’t blame my staff when things go wrong because I’m ultimately responsible for their actions. I find solutions to problems, and I am the first to admit my mistakes.
Canada 150 Women_Conversations with Leaders, Champions, and Luminaries Page 20