Sometimes people don’t quite get their career paths right the first time and a bold leap of faith turns their life around.
Here’s a look at some famous Canadians who changed jobs and changed their lives.
Stephen Lewis got into politics at age 26 and quickly got a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The NDP leader stayed in the trenches of provincial politics throughout the 1970s before stepping down in 1978.
A few years later, prime minister Brian Mulroney made him Canada’s ambassador to the UN.
That was followed by a stint at UNICEF and then as Kofi Annan’s special envoy for HIV/AIDs in Africa, which led him to found the Stephen Lewis Foundation in 2003.
He has gone on to raise millions of dollars to help those fighting the effects of the disease.
Ken Dryden was on his way to a legal career when he decided to try his luck on the ice.
His university hockey career had been full of trophies and life proved no different with the Montreal Canadiens.
He played only seven full seasons in the 1970s, but won six Stanley Cups.
He retired at 31 and went on to enjoy a career as a writer, notably authoring The Game, before being elected to parliament in 2004.
Born in Edmonton, actor Lucy Decoutere found international fame in Halifax as Lucy, Ricky’s on-again, off-again girlfriend in the Trailer Park Boys.
When the TV series ended, Decoutere retrained as a teacher and took a job at Bedford Academy in Nova Scotia.
Before classes started, her fake past caught up to her as an interview she did partially in character ran in a local newspaper and the school “parted ways” with the f-bomb dropping Decoutere.
Undaunted, she charted a third career path and is now happily training in the Canadian Forces as an aerospace controller.
