Speaking Notes

for

Ken Dryden, Minister of Social Development

Acadia University

Wolfville, Nova Scotia

September 23, 2005

A lot of you are in first year, just beginning your new life at Acadia. It's an exciting time; it's an anxious time. You don't quite know what you're doing. You don't quite know where you're going. You don't quite know where and how you fit in. But you'll be OK. As I'm sure you've been told, the first year is the hardest year; the first term is the hardest term; and the first month of the first term is the hardest month. But you've faced big changes before. You found a way, and you will again. It's all there in you. And it's worth it.

Your life is a life in the becoming. A life in the making. Whatever you are today, you'll be more of tomorrow. That is pretty exciting too. So keep at it. You'll be fine.

It didn't occur to me until a few hours ago that what you're going through, these personal themes of yours, are very much connected to my themes today about Canada.

We have all just gone through a nice hot summer. Summer is a good time. It's a time to do different things, different enough that even when you're busy, they seem like a break, a rest, something fresh. It's a time to change pace. To go for long walks or runs. It's a time to think. About last year, about what was right and what wasn't. And why. About – if you had done this, or that, what the result might have been instead.

And in all this thinking, summer is a time to piece together in your mind, step by step, a plan. To imagine the future. To get excited. To begin writing a new story for yourselves – how so clearly, so possibly, this next year can be, will be, different from last year.

Hockey players are lucky. They have three months between seasons to do all this – in some years, even more. Teachers and students are lucky too. The 70 you got last year – in those summer months you've worked out in your mind so absolutely clearly how this year it'll be an 80. You just know. And, with our breaks between sessions, politicians are lucky too.

It's been a good summer for me. I've had a chance to catch up – to see family more, and friends; to see doctors and dentists, to experience again the humiliation of fitness tests. I spent two weeks in French-language courses in Jonquière, Quebec. Two more weeks with my wife driving around Quebec on secondary roads, to places we'd never been – to Lac St. Jean, Chicoutimi, Alma and the Saguenay; to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Gaspé and parts of the Eastern Townships. I've spent time in other parts of the country as well. But, of course, all this was really traveling to get to other parts of our own minds. This summer, I've had the chance to catch up on some thinking.

I've had the chance to think about Canada.

It's my job to do that now. I used to do it just for fun. I grew up in a Canada after World War II that was booming. Our population was only about 1/3 of what it is today. Montreal was our largest city. It was a country of immense space and distance – east and west, north and south. A country of immense resources – the wheat of the Prairies, the mines of northern Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec, the oil of Alberta, the forests, lakes and rivers of everywhere.

And mostly, it was a country of immense possibilities – so much space, so many resources. So much to do. So much yet to be done. It was a country in the becoming. A country in the making. Because we knew that whatever we were then, we would be so much more tomorrow. That was the story I grew up with. That was the story I learned.

In my life, I have lived in Hamilton, Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa. I lived in the U.S. for four years and in England for one. I have traveled to every province and every territory in this country. As a hockey player, I had the chance to go to small places that few have ever heard of, and fewer would ever think of going. As a Member of Parliament, I've had the chance to listen to and experience people of just about every background and interest. In the next few months, we will have a federal election. It's a time when each party offers to Canadians its vision of the country. From my own long summer walks, rollerblades and early mornings sitting out on our side porch, let me tell you of the Canada I see. The Canada you are about to inherit.

According to the United Nations Human Development Index, in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income, in 2005 Canada ranked 5^th among 177 countries, and first among the G7. According to the World Competitiveness Yearbook, Canada has the best overall quality of life among the G7, the lowest cost of living, it ranks highest in addressing environmental concerns such as air and water pollution, land protection and greenhouse emissions; it ranks highest as a safe place to live and to conduct business, with the most fairly administered justice system; and it also ranks first in providing equal opportunities for individuals.

According to the Intelligence Unit of The Economist, over the next 5 years Canada will be the second best country in the world in which to conduct business, behind Denmark, ahead of the U.S.; and that in terms of general quality of life from a business perspective, Toronto and Montreal rank among the 10 best cities in the world. And in a National Brand Index survey of 10,000 people from 10 countries, asked their opinion on the best places to work and live, to expand business, on people and governance, Canada ranked as the second favourite country in the world, behind Australia.

We are a place that, in general, is experiencing pretty good times. Our employment growth is the highest in the G7; our unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in 30 years. Since 1997, we've had the fastest rate of increase in living standards in the G7, and the second best growth rate in productivity.

We know that lots of things are also wrong. Too many people are poor. We are doing better, but we need to do far better for our aboriginal population, for those with disabilities. In our health care, we need to feel as citizens that if we aren't OK, we can make a call, go some place, see someone, and soon we will be OK. We say, "Justice delayed is justice denied," but in terms of many illnesses and conditions, treatment delayed is treatment denied.

We need for many more kids to arrive at the kindergarten door ready to learn because, in interesting, stimulating, secure environments, inside the home and outside, in their early years of life, these kids have been learning.

We need for many more adults, inside their workplaces and outside, to get the chance to keep on learning, to become better at the next thing – and the next.

We need to do better, and we also need to feel we can. That's why all those surveys and comparisons matter. Not for us to congratulate ourselves. But to help give us a realistic sense of ourselves, of how we are doing, of where we fit in. They remind us of what we really are. Of what we can be.

We're pretty good, and we need to know it. It gets us to take on more, what we should take on, what's in us to take on. Big things, important things, tough things.

Deep down, we are a confident country.

How does a confident country think? How does a confident country act?

Economically –

We are as hardworking, imaginative, and with as much ambition and drive as anybody. With our natural resources and our high levels of education, in our future we have as much opportunity as anybody. Times are changing. We are adaptable. We've had to change before, we know how to change, and we know we can change again.

We also know that we are strong enough to make it in the present, and in the future. We have no right to sacrifice that future; we have no need to. Not fiscally, not environmentally. We have too much of a stake in the future. There is so much there for us, and we know it. We know that however good our present is, our future can be, should be, will be, better.

Internationally –

In a world growing more global, we are a global country. Not just in our trade, our peacekeeping, in the aid we provide, but day-to-day here in our existence at home. With our countless nationalities, the world lives within our borders. We experience its complications, challenges and richness up close – in our neighbourhoods, our schools, our workplaces.

Our children live a global existence before they ever take one step beyond our boundaries. As Canadians, we are learning to get used to difference, to deal with difference. Difference matters to us much less than it once did. We're still not entirely sure about this complicated, challenging world inside our borders, but we are proud of it. We know it makes us special. We know it makes us important.

We connect officially to the world through the UN, the Commonwealth, the Francophonie, the G7, the Asia-Pacific Rim countries and more. But our connection to the world is much more by our attitude, our instinct and perspective. Our experience with smallness, difference and "getting along" – means for us some significant role in the world in the future. A role that will also reflect back on us, come to be understood by others as us, engender great pride and confidence in us, reinforcing what we are and what we understand ourselves to be.

Our most important global relationship, of course, is with the U.S. The U.S. has been, is, and always will be, a central fact of our life. Our agenda is our agenda, but their agenda is part of our agenda too. It cannot be otherwise. We share the North American landmass. The U.S. is by far our biggest trading partner. If their economy suffers, our economy suffers. Their security is our security; their vulnerability is ours as well.

More than that, their values and way of life play out in front of us every minute of every day generating for us an immensely challenging standard to meet. Their dreams are part of our dreams; they are part of our reality as well. We don't live the splendid isolation of Sweden. We can't easily go our own way. To ourselves, to seem a success, we need to be all that we want to be, and all that the U.S. is as well. We need to have the same standard of living, the best hospitals and clinics, the best universities, and we need also to deliver good, solid, secure health care and education to every citizen. It is as it is.

More and more it is also clear that the U.S. needs us. The biggest, most powerful nation on Earth, the U.S. does not yet understand that in a global world, nobody is truly a "big guy." Nobody can deal with the world's complexities and complications alone. In a global world, we are all small. As Canadians, we have always been small. We know that for things to work, we need to talk, discuss, listen, negotiate, compromise, work with others. Seen by the U.S. as so much like them, seen by the rest of the world as so much like the U.S., there is nobody who can explain the U.S. to the rest of the world, and nobody who can explain the rest of the world to the U.S., better than Canada. It will become an ever more important role.

The U.S. is an older country, but more defined and having to deal with these definitions, like someone much younger it is struggling to work out its place in the world. We are much younger, but we have had more experience in the realities of this new world. It may seem to others we are like a best friend to the U.S., but really we are like an older brother.

As Canadians, we know that we need to disagree with the U.S. when we don't agree, both for our sake and for the sake of the U.S.

Environmentally –

Our land. Our space. Our water and air. Our mountains and forests and prairies. Our natural resources – our environment was our first, and it remains our most fundamental, identity. It is how others know us best. It is how we best know ourselves.

The challenges of our environment – the immense size and natural barriers of our land, the harshness and unpredictability of our climate – are the root of our restraint as a country. The possibilities of our environment – its resources – are the root of our optimism. They are the root of our strong future orientation. They are the root of our confidence.

We know there is nothing that will undermine that identity, shake that optimism, and destroy that confidence more than for us to do damage to our environment. And we know there is nothing that will reinforce and enhance that identity, optimism and confidence more than to deal with our environment well.

Socially –

In behind all this are our social programs. And in behind our social programs, more importantly, are our social understandings. Our understandings as Canadians. As Canadians, we expect certain things of and for ourselves. We expect certain things of and for others. We know that, historically, living in a climate that was harsh and unpredictable, on a land that could be inhospitable and demanding, we could not make it on our own. We needed our neighbours, and our neighbours needed us.

We know that from these expectations and circumstances, we have developed certain understandings of ourselves. We understand ourselves to be a responsible people. We believe it is up to us, that everyone – children, seniors, families – should have the tools to make their own future.

We understand ourselves to be a generous people. We believe that if someone really needs help, we will offer it. If we don't, we feel bad – about ourselves, and about ourselves as Canadians.

We understand ourselves to be an optimistic people. We believe that everyone deserves a chance, and when things go wrong, or are wrong, out of one's own fault or circumstance – poverty, disease, disability, age – we believe they deserve another chance. And we also understand ourselves to be a future-oriented people. We do not believe that today's adult represents the ultimate in human achievement, the ultimate in human possibility. We do not believe that we live in the ultimate Canada, in the ultimate world.

Along with our land, it is these understandings that are our underpinnings. They are the base we need to succeed in the now-bigger world we live in that is itself often harsh and unpredictable, inhospitable and demanding. They are the bedrock of our confidence.

We know that to live longer, live healthier, live smarter, to live better, our human development system, our healthcare, education, and social development programs, are critical. Economic policy and social policy are really part of the same thing. A good economy is our best instrument of social policy. It not only generates more money that can go into social programs, but it means more people who are able to support themselves without the assistance of social programs, leaving more for people who aren't.

But good social policy is also critical to good economic policy. Good health care and good education bring people we need into the country, and keep others we need here. With our basic needs taken care of, it also allows us to focus on the challenges at hand. Economic policy and social policy need each other.

I was a goalie. At first, I thought my job was to stop shots. Then I realized it was actually to prevent goals – not quite the same thing. It was to stop shots, but it was also to keep as many shots from being taken as possible, by controlling rebounds, by helping my defence in yelling instructions, by making good passes. Then I realized the job of the goalie was really something more. In everything I had done and in everything I was doing in that game, it was my job to deliver a message to my team-mates – that everything's OK back here. We're fine. Don't worry. Think about what you need to do, what you're so good at doing. Move that puck up the ice, drive towards their net - score Keep your mind, keep all of your mind, on the challenge of that.

My job was to give confidence, to give the others the opportunity to "go for it." To take a chance. To do the huge amount necessary to meet the challenge and succeed.

That, I think, is what our social understandings, and the social programs that come out of them, do for Canadians. That is why they matter so much to our always emerging future.

Internally –

Our country grew up in small pockets of population widely separated, each made different from the other by the land and climate around them, by their proximity or distance from Europe, by the century in which they developed, and by who settled them first. Depending on all of those things, we became what we could be. We created different lives, different ways of doing things, with different understandings of ourselves and where we fit into the world and into Canada. We made our lives where we were and made them work for us. At times, we can seem a fragmented place. But beneath the sometimes rancour, we have Canada in common.

As regards Quebec, the strength and success, and the sustainability of the language and culture of 6 million French-speaking people in the midst of 300 million English-speaking North Americans, is a remarkable achievement. It is an achievement almost unique in the world. It has happened because of the ambitions and spirit of the Quebec people, because of their pride and belief in themselves, because of their determination to fight; and also because of the "live and let live" traditions and instincts, institutions and understandings of Canada; of all Canadians, Quebeckers included.

In the past, now, and in the future, a confident Canada needs a confident Quebec, and a confident Quebec needs a confident Canada. It is the same for Alberta, for B.C., for Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia. What seems like squabbling, and sometimes is, is also the sound of different places, sensing their possibilities, becoming more sure of themselves.

These are just a few impressions, expressions and representations of today's Canada. But they suggest, I think, something more about us.

About ten years ago, I went back to high school for a year to write a book on education. Day after day, I just sat in class. I wanted to know who was learning and who wasn't, and why. I wanted to know who was a good teacher, who wasn't and why. Some students were doing very well, some were not, many were just there. The central question was – how can they do better? The student who has a 60 in math, how does he get to 70? He has a history in math and everyday he walks into class, he brings that history with him. It's a history that says: I hate math. I've always hated math. I can't do math. And why do I have to take it anyway? I'm not going to be an engineer or a scientist. Why do I even have to be here?

And every day, that's what the teacher has to teach to. A little humour and enthusiasm will help, but it will not get the student from 60 to 70. But if that teacher sits down with that student, if she goes over his last exam perhaps – Let's take a look at this question, she might say. It's algebra so you start with some knowns and some unknowns. You use the knowns to figure out the unknowns. And here, in this line, that's exactly what you did. You weren't intimidated by the fact you had those unknowns, by what you didn't know. You just chipped away and figured out this part, and that – and yes, you got the wrong answer, but look at how you worked through this - you've got a math mind.

The student has the wrong story about himself in math. And unless the teacher can get into his story and help him find a way to write it another way, nothing will change. But if she does, who knows –

It is crucial – for students, for hockey players, for countries – to have the right story. To have the right understandings about themselves. That's what gets them, gets us, to what we can be.

What do I see about Canada?

Today, Canada's population is about three times as large as it was when I was born. Toronto is now our largest city. Yet today what I see is a place not much different from the Canada I learned about as a child. It is still a country of immense space and distances – east and west, north and south. It's still a country of immense resources. And most importantly, it's still a country of immense possibilities. A country that is still in the making, still in the becoming.

We knew then, we know now, that whatever we once were, whatever we are now, we will be much more tomorrow. After more than half a century of great change, of the rise of Japan, China, India and the Far East, of the rebirth of Europe, of the fall of the Berlin Wall, of the advance of globalism, of rises and falls everywhere, this is still our story.

I see an optimistic place. I see a place fundamentally oriented to the future – to children and youth, to education and learning, to the environment. I see a place that understands that whatever may happen in the world – good; bad – whatever the trends, with our space, our natural resources, our human resources, with our institutions, our stability, our peace, with our "get along" instincts, we can make any future work.

I see a good place. I see, deep down, a confident place. We have always found a way in the past. We will find a way in the future.

Sometimes, deep down can be too deep down, too far from the visible surface. It can hide too much from others, and from ourselves. It can allow us to escape too easily our bigger roles, our bigger responsibilities, our bigger possibilities.

As governments, as businesses, as educational institutions, we need to act confident. How does a confident Canada deal with softwood lumber, with Kyoto and Devil's Lake, with the sponsorship scandal, with post-secondary education funding, and so on, and so on? It is in what we do, and it is in how we do it. It is our policies, and it is our tone.

Thank you.