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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - APRIL 2014
GOVERNOR GENERAL
huge accomplishment.
How can we better serve our Ab-
original communities?
It’s a great challenge for all Ca-
nadians to make up for six or seven
generations of problems with our
Aboriginal and First Nations rela-
tionships. One of the things that has
pleased me in terms of progress is to
see the number of First Nations and
Aboriginal young people who have
not only gotten an education but have
gotten a professional education in law,
engineering, business…it’s been a dra-
matic change in the number of lead-
ers that have been created. We have a
very progressive leadership within our
Aboriginal communities and we have
seen some very responsible activity in
our business community. If we are go-
ing to see relationships developed, our
business community needs to work
with stakeholders.
How do you promote Canada
abroad within your role?
The Canadian Constitution is
now the legislation that other countries
look at for an example of how to build
a constitution. The Canadian system
has come into favour. Our Charter of
Human Rights is flexible and allows
for a balancing of power.
The rule of law is very important
to us. Canada is a country of trust.
The Governor General’s office
plays a role as one of the representa-
tives of government abroad, particu-
larly in the area of reinforcing our con-
stitutional values. We are a smart and
caring nation and that makes this a
great place to live and work. Our DNA
is to look after our neighbour.
One that note, in 2017, our 150th
birthday, I want us to celebrate that
looking after one’s neighbour is a fun-
damental feature of Canadian citizen-
ship. We do as well or better than any
other nation at immigration in that we
don’t want people to abandon their
heritage when they come to live here.
We have a sense of unity and are al-
ways looking for ways to improve.
Why are you proud of being Ca-
nadian?
I am from a small resource town in
Northern Ontario and in any other
country; if we were having this con-
versation I might be doing another job.
But because of a great public educa-
tion system I had the opportunity to
become a knowledge worker. My own
story is the Canadian story—one can
develop oneself here and we as a coun-
try encourage that. And that is Cana-
da: we have equality of opportunity—
we’re a country that is a meritocracy,
built on hard work and entrepreneur-
ship.