Keynote Address - Announcing the Institute of Wellbeing and Introducing the Canadian Index of Wellbeing

6/10/2009 12:01:00 AM

by
The Hon. Roy J. Romanow, P.C., O.C., S.O.M., Q.C.
Chair, Institute of Wellbeing Advisory Board
Senior Fellow, Political Studies, University of Saskatchewan;
Atkinson Economic Justice Fellow;
Commissioner on the Future of Health Care in Canada;
Former Premier of Saskatchewan

St. Lawrence Hall, Toronto
June 10, 2009

1. Introduction

Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for coming here today. And welcome to the St. Lawrence Hall.

We deliberately chose this site for this morning’s announcement because it has played such an important role in Canada’s history. Those of you who are not from Toronto, and perhaps some who are, may not know that St. Lawrence Hall was built in 1850 as Toronto’s great public meeting space.

It was here that some of the great fathers of Canadian Confederation – George Brown and Sir John A. Macdonald in particular – came to speak to the people of Upper Canada, and set out a vision of a new country based on shared values that were unique to this part of the North American continent.

It’s difficult to know which of these two leaders was more persuasive. It was often said at the time that audiences preferred Sir John A. drunk to George Brown sober. On the one hand, Sir John A. may have taught Brown a thing or two about the art of persuasion. When the delegates in Charlottetown later voted unanimously for Confederation in 1867, Brown proclaimed that he wasn’t sure whether it was “the result of our eloquence or of the goodness of our champagne.”

Well, I stand before you today unadorned by either eloquence or champagne, but strengthened by Victor Hugo’s conviction that “nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.” 

Click here to download the full speech (PDF 130KB)

News & Announcements