Spencer McDonald didn’t plan to become a leader in driver training. He just wanted to make rent. It was 1983. He was working at a motorcycle dealership in B.C. when the rug got pulled out from under him. Laid off. No severance. No fallback plan. Just one last shift and a quiet goodbye to the sales floor.
Then a customer walked in and asked the million-dollar question:
“What are you doing next?”
McDonald shrugged. No clue.
“He said, ‘Maybe you’d make a good motorcycle instructor,’” McDonald recalls. “I thought, huh. Maybe I would.”
No career coach. No five-year plan. Just a suggestion from a stranger and a spark of curiosity. A few days later, McDonald applied to the school the guy recommended. A few weeks after that, he was standing in a parking lot. Clipboard in hand, he showed a pack of nervous rookies how not to fall off a Honda. And just like that, he was in.
From Student to Sensei
That first gig was with the BC Safety Council. It’s now defunct but, at the time, it was the gold standard for traffic safety in the province. It didn’t take long for them to spot something in McDonald.
“They liked what they saw,” he says. “Next thing I knew, I was coordinating training, then training the trainers themselves.”
He wasn’t just running drills in a lot. He was helping shape how instructors approached education. Defensive driving. Commercial fleets. Hazard perception. Before long, he was working with the Canada Safety Council. He was building programs. He was sitting on advisory boards, influencing how instruction gets delivered across the country.
Not bad for a guy who walked into the industry sideways.
“Honestly, it just kept growing,” McDonald says. “I never went looking for a ‘career path.’ I just kept saying yes.”
What He's Building Now
Today, McDonald leads Thinking Driver. It’s a nationally respected training firm that blends psychology, coaching, and real-world practice. It’s a rock-solid defensive driving program. They work with private fleets, municipalities, and training organizations across Canada.
But right now, he’s in the thick of a massive lift. A full-blown ICBC-approved driving instructor certification program is in the pipeline. He’s building a course that will give his school the power to train and license new driving instructors on behalf of the province.
And that’s no small feat.
“There’s maybe six schools in all of B.C. that have this authority,” he says. “It’s an incredibly high bar.”
This isn’t just about teaching someone how to parallel park. It’s about understanding curriculum development. It’s about adult learning psychology. Licensing regulations, insurance implications, and yes—navigating the ICBC bureaucracy.
“The approval process is intense,” he says. “But you know what’s harder? Building something that actually makes someone a good teacher—not just someone who knows how to drive.”
Inside the Classroom (and Behind the Wheel)
Ask McDonald what makes a good instructor, and you won’t get a technical checklist. You’ll get something closer to a manifesto.
“You can’t just tell people how to do something,” he says. “They have to feel it. They have to try it. You can’t understand understeer until you feel it in your hands.”
That philosophy runs through everything Thinking Driver teaches. Whether it’s a young instructor-in-training or a seasoned professional, the goal is always the same. Make safety second nature.
That’s why his team puts so much weight on simulation, coaching, and scenario-based practice. He doesn’t just want you to pass a test—he wants you to anticipate a mistake before it happens.
“We’re not in the business of teaching rules. We’re in the business of changing behavior.”
Spencer McDonald – President
Why It Matters
Every Canadian knows someone with a horror story behind the wheel. A fender-bender that could have been worse. A close call in the snow. A tragedy that started with something small.
And that’s the problem. Driving is dangerous, but we treat it like brushing our teeth.
“It’s the most high-risk thing most people do every day,” McDonald says. “And we treat it like nothing.”
That complacency is what drives McDonald. Not fear, exactly—but urgency. The kind that comes from watching someone hit black ice and spin out, and knowing that a two-hour training session might have changed the outcome.
“We don’t need more warnings,” he says. “We need more respect—for the road, for the process, for each other.”
The Legacy Question
It’s been over 40 years since McDonald taught his first rider how to keep the rubber side down. Since then, he’s led thousands of sessions. He’s coached fleets, consulted on policy, and helped shape national standards.
But he’s not looking for a statue.
“I’m not building a legacy,” he says. “I’m building capacity.”
What he means is this: he’s training instructors not to replicate his style—but to find their own voice. To show up with empathy. To lead with curiosity. To be the kind of teacher a nervous teen or second-career learner actually wants to learn from.
And that might be the most important thing of all.
Because when you multiply that kind of teacher across the province, across the country, you don’t just get better drivers.
You get safer roads.
Final Gear
The day McDonald sat down for this interview, he was sharing a temporary office in a building lit with bad fluorescent bulbs. At one point, he had to stop mid-sentence and unscrew a light above his head because the glare was driving him nuts. It was funny. It was human. And it said a lot. Here’s a guy building one of the most rigorous instructor certification programs in the country. And he’s doing it from a loaned-out space with too much overhead glare.
Why? Because that’s what the work demands right now. McDonald shows up, no matter where the desk is.
Work smart. Stay strong. Speak up.
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