Reclaiming Control in the Age of AI: Power, Preparedness, and the People

My speech at the Prairie Rising Forum, 18 Oct 2025, in Regina SK

Every great technological revolution in history has changed what people do for a living.
The Industrial Revolution replaced muscle.
The Digital Revolution replaced memory.
And now, Artificial Intelligence is about to replace judgment — the very thing that makes us human.

At first, AI will replace simple, repetitive tasks — the kind of work that’s easy to automate.
We’ll call it “efficiency.”
We’ll watch it reshape industries, just as automation once replaced factory line workers.
It will start by helping people do their jobs faster and cheaper.
But that’s only the beginning.

Once AI masters routine tasks, it will move into reasoning, creativity, and decision-making.
Professions like law, medicine, finance, teaching, and journalism will all feel it.

Like nuclear energy, Artificial Intelligence is a force that can serve or destroy — depending on who controls it.
The same power that can light a city - can also level one.
Nuclear power gave us clean energy — and it also gave us Hiroshima.
AI will be no different.

In the right hands, it can cure disease and free people from exhausting work.
In the wrong hands, it becomes a weapon — one that doesn’t need to destroy cities to conquer nations.
All it has to do is control access to opportunity, communication, and truth.

A single person with advanced AI will soon produce what once took a small team.
That will redefine productivity.
Employers will realize they don’t need five people when one person with AI can do the job — or do it better.
That’s how the largest workforce disruption in history will begin.

This won’t happen slowly or evenly.
It will happen exponentially.
Each new model will learn from the one before it, doubling in power every few months.
Change won’t feel gradual — it will feel like a cliff.
Jobs won’t fade away; they’ll vanish.

Intelligence itself will be equalized.
Someone with an IQ of 70 and someone with 150 will both have access to an AI IQ of 1,000.
When that happens, knowledge won’t be the advantage — access will.
Those who control access to AI will control opportunity itself.

When that day comes, governments will face a crisis they can’t manage.
Entire industries will buckle under automation.
The pressure to act will be overwhelming.
That’s when we’ll see Universal Basic Income rolled out across the country.

UBI will be presented as compassion, as fairness, as a “dignified safety net.”
It will begin small — pilot projects for displaced workers — then grow as jobs disappear.
At first, it will feel like stability.
A guaranteed monthly payment.
A promise that no one will be left behind.
But that promise will come with strings attached.

Once government begins paying everyone directly, it must decide what counts as essential.
Food, housing, transportation, medicine — those will be labeled essential.
Everything else will fall under non-essential spending.

Once Digital ID is implemented, that line between essential and non-essential will be enforced automatically.

Every dollar of UBI will be programmable.

Essential UBI will be locked to approved products and services.
Disposable UBI — the small fraction you can spend freely — will shrink over time.

That distinction will change everything.
If government decides gasoline isn’t essential for city residents, your ID may block the purchase.
If red meat is ruled unsustainable, your grocery payment might not go through.
If you support a cause that challenges policy, your account could be flagged for review.

This won’t happen through force.
It will happen through convenience.
It will begin as voluntary — “for your safety,” “for fairness,” “to prevent fraud.”
Most people will accept it because it’s easy.

Over time, voluntary will become mandatory by necessity.
As more people depend on UBI, private businesses will adapt.
They’ll design services around approved transactions.
Banks are already aligning their systems with Digital ID frameworks — preparing for a world where access can be granted or denied by design.
And the free economy — the one driven by human exchange — will shrink beneath a centrally managed algorithm.

That’s how freedom ends in the modern age — not with tyranny, but with automation by AI.
It will be sold as innovation.
It will be celebrated as progress.
But behind it all will stand a quiet mechanism of control deciding what’s “good for you.”

Do not ask what technology will give you — ask what it will take from you.
Do not ask what government will promise — ask what power it will demand.
Do not ask who will save you — ask who will stand with you.

That is the danger of combining AI, UBI, and Digital ID.
Together, they form the architecture of a controlled economy — one that doesn’t need new laws to enforce compliance because the software itself will do it.

The question isn’t what jobs will vanish — it’s what freedoms will vanish with them.
If we let government decide what is “essential,” freedom will no longer be something we live — it will be something we’re permitted to have.

This is the first great shift — the age of Artificial Intelligence, where efficiency hides control and automation replaces accountability.
If we don’t act now, the people won’t govern the machines — the machines will govern the people.

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In July 2024, I joined a project that began as a simple idea.
The question was simple yet incredibly difficult to achieve:

What if voters — not politicians — could set the agenda?

At first, I thought we were just building a digital tool — a better way to reach elected representatives.
But I soon realized we were building something much bigger — a counterbalance to control.

For too long, Canadians have lived under a power-of-attorney relationship with their politicians.
Every four years, we hand them authority and hope they’ll act in our best interests.
But once the votes are counted, most disappear behind party walls — accountable to leadership, not to citizens.

Today, most MPs and MLAs have become administrative assistants in their own ridings — cutting ribbons and taking orders from headquarters.
Inside their parties, only the leader’s vote truly matters.
Step out of line, and your voice — and the voices of everyone who sent you — is booted from the party.

That’s not representation. That’s obedience.
And that’s where Toto comes in.

Toto is a civic-engagement platform that puts voters back in the driver’s seat.
It lets citizens rally around issues that matter, communicate directly with their representatives, and see who’s actually listening.
With Toto, every voter has a digital megaphone and every politician becomes accountable in real time.

The virtuous politicians — those who truly believe in representation — will reveal themselves by using Toto.
They’ll engage openly and serve the people, not the party machine.

Toto eliminates excuses.
Politicians can no longer claim ignorance.
Citizens can no longer claim powerlessness.
It restores the relationship between the governed and those who govern — service, not subservience.

But this shift isn’t just about communication.
It’s about defending sovereignty in a digital age.

A Digital ID connects your license, medical records, taxes, and banking into one verified profile.
It sounds convenient — but it creates a single point of control.
Every purchase, login, and service can be tied to your identity.
If a government or corporation deems an activity “restricted,” access can be denied instantly — not by a person, but by software.

A Central Bank Digital Currency — or CBDC — is money issued directly by the central bank.
Unlike cash, it’s programmable and traceable.
Rules can be embedded directly into it — where you can spend, what you can buy, or how long it remains valid.

If Digital ID defines who you are, and CBDC dictates how you spend, together they determine what freedoms you can exercise.
They form a managed economy — a system where compliance becomes a condition of participation.

That’s why Toto exists — not to replace democracy, but to defend it.
When thousands of voters unite behind an issue, it’s no longer opinion — it’s data.
It becomes visible, measurable, impossible to ignore.

Because Toto uses AI responsibly, it can summarize thousands of interactions and reveal what unites Canadians.
Government AI monitors people.
Toto’s AI amplifies them.
It uses the same technology that could enslave us — to instead empower us.

We also believe in the Rule of 300 — the point where growth becomes exponential.
If 300 engaged citizens in one community connect and act together, everything changes.
300 become 3,000.
3,000 become 30,000.
Soon, momentum is no longer digital — it’s cultural.

If we can reach 300, we can reach the country.
Local action creates national impact.
Toto isn’t just a platform — it’s a process.
A way for Canadians to reclaim their democracy, one community at a time. You can join Toto now, at usetoto.com but I encourage you to give it a few more weeks and then jump in with both feet.

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If we fail to take control of the first two shifts — if we let AI, Digital ID, and centralization roll over us — then the third shift becomes inevitable: Preparedness and Community.

I wrote The People’s Emergency Plan to save lives.
It’s not theory — it’s survival.
And I wrote it because we all know this truth: when things go wrong in Canada, it’s not the government that saves us — it’s people who step up.

We saw it during Covid.
Governments locked down citizens, crushed small businesses, censored doctors, and divided families.
They failed every test of honesty and competence.
It was neighbors and volunteers who kept people alive.

Preparedness isn’t fear — it’s leadership when official leadership collapses.
I spent 25 years in the Canadian Army planning for the worst and executing under pressure.
Survival isn’t luck — it’s structure, process, and repetition.
When I retired, I adapted those systems for civilian life.
That’s what The People’s Emergency Plan is: military thinking translated into civilian resilience.

It teaches families to see threats clearly, build options, and make decisions before panic sets in.
Because panic kills reason — and when reason disappears, people die needlessly.

Preparedness isn’t hoarding.
It’s capability — food, water, power, communications, security, and medical care — built from the bottom up.
It’s teaching your family and neighbours to function without waiting for instructions.

You can’t survive alone.
Lone wolves don’t make it in the wild.
They tire, they get injured, and no one guards their flank.
But a pack survives.
The strength of the pack isn’t its fastest member — it’s how it protects its weakest.
That’s what your community must become: a pack.
A team that trains, plans, and prepares together.
A family of families that stands firm when the world falls apart.

Start now.
Build your plans.
Build your communities.
Because when the next crisis hits, it won’t be time to start getting ready — it’ll be time to execute.

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The Age of Responsibility

We are the generation standing at the edge of history’s next great shift — not driven by armies or empires, but by algorithms.
Artificial Intelligence will change how we work.
Digital systems will change how we live.
And fear will tempt us to trade freedom for comfort.

Our ancestors didn’t build this country by choosing comfort.
They built it by taking responsibility — for their families, their communities, and each other.

In The Matrix, there’s a scene where Neo walks through a crowded street.
Everyone looks normal until a woman in a red dress passes by.
She distracts him for just a moment — and in that instant, the system attacks.
Morpheus says, “Most people are not ready to be unplugged. Many are so dependent on the system they’ll fight to protect it.”

That wasn’t fiction — it was prophecy.

We’re living in a country where thinking people — those who care and pay attention — are told to stay silent so the unthinking and the inconvenienced won’t be offended.

Where the most dependent citizens defend the system enslaving them, because dependence feels safe.
And like the woman in the red dress, distraction is everywhere — designed to keep us staring in the wrong direction while the system lines up its next move.

We can’t save everyone.
Some will resist the very freedoms that protect them.
But that can’t be our focus.
Our mission is to reach those who can still hear — to build something stronger while others remain hypnotized by comfort.

Courage doesn’t mean waking everyone up.
It means staying awake when most refuse to see.

We can’t control everything the future brings.
But we can control how prepared we are for it.
We can use systems like Toto to hold government accountable.
We can build plans like The People’s Emergency Plan to keep our families safe.
And we can rebuild the trust that holds us together when everything else fails.

Technology doesn’t decide what kind of world we live in.
People do.
Ours is a generation being tested not just by war, but by confusion — not just by invasion, but by manipulation.
And the only way through it is with courage, clarity, and community.

So build your plans.
Build your teams.
Build your communities.
Because the future will belong to those who are prepared to lead when everyone else is waiting to be led.

Thank you.