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Mr. Chancellor, Mr. President, distinguished guests, and especially, graduates and your families:

I’d like to thank the Chancellor and the Senate of Dalhousie University for granting this honorary degree to me.

Dalhousie has obviously played an important role in my life but the connection did not start or end with me.  My grandfather graduated from the University in 1907, my father in 1932, my wife, my brother, my sister and two of our sons call Dalhousie their alma mater.  I suspect there is a future Dalhousian or two sitting out there this morning.

And I want to thank you, the graduates of 2009, for allowing me to share the stage with you on this, your very special day. Years of hard work – and you succeeded!  My congratulations to each of you.

And to your families:  As a parent and a grandparent, I know the commitment and energy that was demanded of every one of the graduates sitting here today and I also know how much support – emotional, intellectual, financial and sometimes just the “hang in there, you can do it” support – that each of you was called upon through the years to give to your graduates.

Today marks a great achievement for all of you.  Congratulations.

I’ve learned – and you are about to discover – that Dalhousie isn’t a place you attend for a few years, get a degree, and then leave behind.   

This place gets in your blood.  Maybe it’s something in the water – or the sea air – or maybe it’s the Keith’s!  But the community of Dalhousie is unique – and it grows and strengthens as each of you graduates and extends that community into your lives.  I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have asked someone to do something for Dalhousie and been turned down.

I once read that the two oldest continuous institutions of the western world are a parliament – the Parliament on the Isle of Man, known as Tynwald – and a university – the University of Al-Karaouine in Morocco.  Our oldest institutions are both places created to enable people to come together - to listen to others and to speak their own minds.  Those are the institutions that have endured for centuries – ones that brought people together into a community, born of mutual respect and a shared desire to achieve something greater than anyone could achieve alone.

And your generation is now taking this notion of community and exploding it into something of almost infinite dimensions. Turning it on its head to create something never-before-imagined.  I grew up in a neighbourhood, with the kids on my block and around the corner.  You have grown up with that – but at the same time, you have created Internet social networks to build friendships and share ideas with people all around the world.

You are breaking down traditional barriers by just ignoring them – and in the process, you are laying the foundation for a much stronger world.  You are taking technology and using it to re-define our world.

There is a lot of talk these days about the dangers of the world we live in.  I would never minimize the threats – they are real, and come from many sources, including ourselves.  We can no longer ignore the dangers posed to the environment by our own actions.  Our extraordinary planet is now drawing a line, saying enough: change cannot wait any longer.  The old rules simply aren’t good enough.

The economic crisis that rocked the world’s financial foundation has made it clear that we return to the old rules of doing business at our peril.  These are lessons I am sure the business graduates here today have learned well.

And of course, the world faces great challenges today to international peace and security – challenges that perhaps require a new diplomacy, and definitely much wisdom.

We are entering a new age.  And you – your generation – will be the key to defining it and with it, our future.  You will be the ones to find and create the new rules for the 21st Century.

The good news is that you are extraordinarily well-equipped to do this.  You are well educated, thoughtful, analytical – and fearless of going out into the world and exploring new ideas.

The world needs the global communities you are building.  The old, insular ways of doing things just aren’t good enough anymore.

So I want to ask you to do something.  I want each of you to take a moment – now or some time when you have a quiet moment to yourself – and imagine how you see a better world.  Even in one small area – imagine the world just a little bit better.

Then take that imagined world, and let it impact how you live.  It can be big or it can be very small – but you do have the power to make a difference.  Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t.

I believe that the world is moved by the power of ideas.  But ideas aren’t enough – they need action – hard work – to make them concrete and a reality.  But change starts with an idea.

Take your ideas and whatever you do, wherever you are – you can and you will make a difference.  And the world will benefit.

Our universities – and I am proud to say that Dalhousie stands in the top rank in Canada – are among the best incubators of the powerful ideas, in both the humanities and the sciences.

They do this through teaching – laying the groundwork of knowledge, for ideas to develop in the minds of students.

And they do this through research right here at the universities and in their affiliated institutes, laboratories and hospitals.

Research is the stuff of our future – it holds the keys to making our re-imagined world a reality.  In science, engineering, information technologies – no country can afford to stand still and rest on the laurels of past achievements.  If we fail to invest in research, we will be left behind.  And think of the discoveries and advances the world will have lost.

Our universities play a pivotal role in Canadian research.

According to Statistics Canada, in 2007/2008 Canadian institutions of higher education – that’s universities and affiliated research hospitals, experimental stations and clinics – performed $10.2 billion worth of research and development.

Just to give you some perspective, the business sector – which spends the most on research and development in Canada – invested $13.8 billion in 2007.

$10.2 billion of R&D in universities, compared to $13.8 billion in the private sector – that’s a lot of R&D from our universities. 

And taken together, the university and business sectors perform about 90% of all the research and development in Canada.

To give you one more interesting statistic – the research and development performed by Canadian universities has been calculated to contribute some $60 billion to our economy.

That’s a phenomenal contribution to Canada.   But even beyond the economic contribution to our country and our communities, there is the real work being done through this research to benefit Canadians and the world.

We can all look with pride at past Canadian scientific breakthroughs – Banting and Best’s discovery of insulin that continues to save lives every day – Till and McCullough’s discovery of the first stem cell (and we’re still just beginning to explore the potential of the stem cell revolution) – the development of a vaccine for E.coli in cattle, now marketed throughout the world – the discovery of a way to reprogram ordinary skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells.  And recently, we learned that Canadians have, as the front page of the Globe & Mail described it, “unlocked the cancer map”, decoding the entire genome of a patient’s breast cancer.  That’s intoxicating stuff – and these are just a very few examples of important Canadian scientific discoveries. 

And extraordinary research is going on right now, here at Dalhousie – indeed, I suspect that a good number of today’s graduates have been involved in many of these projects.  Research on repairing heart muscle after a heart attack – pioneering new ways to diagnose cancers – the use of human viruses to fight cancers – the incredible Ocean Tracking Network project, that brings together hundreds of researchers covering 14 different ocean regions – the invention of a tiny ultrasound device that can travel through the eardrum and “see” deep inside our ear – the list goes on and on and on.

Our scientists and researchers are leading the way in so many fields.  Indeed, The Scientist, a U.S. science magazine, named Dalhousie the best non-commercial scientific institute in which to work in Canada.

That’s impressive – but nothing you and I didn’t already know.  I guess the secret’s getting out.  This is indeed a great place to develop new ideas and to make them a reality.

But we can’t stop now.  Funding and supporting research at our universities is critical to your future, and to our future as a nation.

I was delighted when I was told that the graduates today would be the recipients of degrees in science, management and graduate studies.  It’s like a roomful of research and development, right in front of me.  We need all your ideas – and your energy in taking those ideas and making them a reality, both in the scientific world and then in bringing them to market.

I began these remarks talking about community.  I believe that is where ideas begin – speaking with others, whether in person or over the Internet – building on what has come before – debating and honing concepts.  That is where we can begin to make a difference in the world.  I think it’s no accident that our oldest institutions have this kind of community at their core.

Your generation is re-imagining the world – creating new communities and possibilities that span the globe.

But in the process – as you re-invent the world for tomorrow – it’s important to remember where you come from – that you keep the bonds of the university community strong and vibrant, even as you stretch and expand to embrace the world.  That’s still our foundation, and I hope will remain so for many generations yet to come.

So in closing let me make a personal pitch to each of you – wherever you decide to make your home, remember where you come from, and the importance of Dalhousie in your life.  Make some space for it.  This place will benefit – and so will you. 

 

 

 

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