Spectacular speech by Michael Ignatieff speech at Canada India Foundation Gala

I know, I have been slow on blogging this summer. Been golfing a bit and trying to spend time with family (ok hon, I said trying!) but here is something spectacular that I thought I should share with you. As  you may know I have been a supporter of Michael Ignatieff from the early days because he is a politician who puts values and principles ahead of ambition and power.

He is the kind of person we need to govern Canada, but more so someone who will not pander to the ethnic communities for votes and engages them for ideas and policies like with anyone else.  Here is a speech he delivered at the Canada India Foundation Gala on April 18, 2009. This speech was written by Michael himself, as he does with most of his speeches.

Canada India Foundation Gala and Award 2009

Let me begin by thanking the CIF’s Co-Chair, Ramesh Chotai, for the immense contribution he has made—and is making—to Canada.

It’s a pleasure to be invited to speak to so many leaders in business, government and the professions and spend an evening with members of a community that has given Canada so much. Including Hockey Night in Punjabi.

My wife Zsuzsanna was very happy to be invited, because it gave her an opportunity to wear her sari.

Your honouree this evening is an inspiring example of foresight.

Decades ago, Mr. Tanti invested in two wind turbines. Today, he is a global leader in clean energy.

And your other guest of honour, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, is one of the world’s economic thinkers.

Jim Flaherty, our country’s Minister of Finance, is here representing one of Canada’s great Conservative leaders … his wife.

The Minister and I disagree about a great deal, but I salute his dedication to public service.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this very moment, India is making history.

Days ago, India began the largest democratic vote in the history of humanity—the four-week election of a new Lok Sabha.

Since the midnight hour in 1947, India has shown the world how to build democracy and development together.

Since the 1990’s, you have shown that you can not only catch up to the rest of the world. In many sectors, you have left the rest of the world behind.

You have become a global economic giant: in steel, automobiles, high tech and soft-ware. You have become the back office for the entire world.

At a time when other global economic giants are staggering through the current crisis, India continues to thrive.

These are great achievements. But there is more.

As a people, you stood up against the terrorists who stained the streets of Mumbai with blood last year.

As a people, you put aside your differences and spoke with one voice to the ideologists of hatred and division. You said:

“You will not weaken our democracy. You will not undermine our tolerance.
You will not succeed.”

We stand with you in this struggle.

India’s values are Canada’s values. Like you, we reject the politics of nihilism and the culture of hatred.

Our countries share Parliamentary institutions, a multi-lingual, multicultural, multi-national society, held together by ancient traditions, shared values and the rule of law.

When Mike Pearson and Jawaharlal Nehru worked together, with such obvious mutual respect and affection, the whole world benefited.

I believe the golden era of friendship between our countries lies ahead of us, not behind.

Not all Canadians have understood the significance of India’s recent rise to power.

India’s ascendancy requires Canada to re-position its own centre of gravity in the modern world.

From Confederation until after the First World War, Canada built its nationhood inside the British Empire.

Our centre of gravity was the North Atlantic.

From the Second World War until quite recently, Canada built its prosperity on our trading relationship with the United States. Our centre of gravity was the 49th parallel.

Now we need to ask ourselves: will the 21st century belong to the United States?

The world’s economy is shifting westwards from here, to Asia and the Pacific. And where economic power shifts, political and geostrategic power is sure to follow.

China and India are already important economic and political forces. Their importance will only grow.

Canada must adapt its trading patterns, and its pursuit of global influence, to reflect these new realities.

Our center of gravity needs to shift too.

We need to diversify, to reach out, to establish new trading and political relationships with the new giants of the 21st century economy.

At a time when US growth has stalled and Indian growth is surging ahead, diversification of our markets becomes a necessity.

We have been slow to wake up to India’s new power.

Our trade with India has not kept pace with the spectacular growth of the Indian economy.

Canada’s share of India’s imports has actually declined.

We must reverse that trend. And we will.

I want Canadian businesspeople to travel to India—as they did under the former Liberal government’s Team Canada trade missions.

Canada must mobilize its greatest asset: the Canadian citizens who speak the languages of India, the entrepreneurs, businessmen and professionals in this very room.

You deserve a federal government which reaches out to you and asks how do we work together to capture more market share in India; how do we increase inward investment from India and outward investment to India?

Canadian foreign policy also needs to adapt to the growing power of India.

India is already a mainstay of the emerging institutions of global governance, especially the G -20, an institution which owes its inspiration, more than any other, to a Canadian: former Prime Minister Paul Martin.

India and Canada can accomplish so much together on the steering committee of the world economy. That steering committee is the G20.

Having said something about the challenges and opportunities presented to Canada by India’s rise to power, let me say something about the role of your community within the multicultural tapestry of Canada.

We cannot build a great country without the full participation of every single Canadian.

In my life-time, we have become one of the most diverse countries on earth.

It is an incredible strength, but only if we use it: if every business, every profession, every part of our public service actively recruits men and women of talent from every community in Canada.

We’re not there yet. Our Parliament, our courts, our board-rooms, our public boards and our public service do not yet reflect the magnificent diversity of our country. Too many of our foreign trained professionals languish in occupations which do not reflect their skills.

We cannot be one people until they bring their skills to bear on our national life.

I dedicate myself as Leader of my party to actively recruit the best and brightest from your and other communities. I need you in Parliament. I need you in my office.

As a potential Prime Minister, I dedicate myself to making the public service of my country reflect its awe-inspiring diversity.

As a party leader, I also make a second pledge: to seek, in so far as I can, to unite Canadians, rather than divide them, and above all never divide them on lines of race, religion, language or national origin.

We cannot fight our partisan battles—we cannot try to win elections—by pitting one community against another, one region against another, one group of Canadians against another.

If we push for political victory by tearing the threads of mutual respect and common citizenship that unite us as Canadians—then we will have gone too far.

If we seek partisan advantage by sowing fear among Canadians—then we will have broken faith with the improbable unity that is our proudest national tradition.

We must not let conflicts in far off lands become sources of dissension and bitterness here at home.

We must never let the Middle East conflict divide us into bitter solitudes. We must reach out and find a common way—commitment to the security of Israel, equal commitment to a Palestinian state living in peace beside its neighbour.

We must have the discipline not to pander to ethnic and cultural communities.

That approach is wrong. It makes the insulting assumption that the members of an ethnic community all share the same opinions.

That approach is wrong because it involves addressing Canadians from diverse backgrounds as something other than as equal Canadian citizens. You are proud of your community. You are just as proud of being Canadian citizens. You wish your community belonging to be respected. But even more, you wish to be heard and respected as citizens.

By indulging in a multiculturalism of political wedges, a multiculturalism of pandering and voter targeting and electoral math, we can only shred the soul of true Canadian multiculturalism—the equal respect and equal citizenship that’s written into our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

For me, as a political leader, it means saying the same thing to all Canadians, whether you’re talking to them in a church basement in Trois-Rivieres or a mandir in Brampton, a gurdwara in Vancouver, a mosque in Toronto, or a synagogue in Montreal.

It means never picking and choosing which groups are entitled to respect and fair treatment.

And it means advancing the interests of our communities by advancing the national interest of our country.

By lifting all Canadians up, no matter where they live or where they come from or what they believe or how they vote.

Our country is not 10 provinces and territories strung out along the 49th parallel. It is not 5 separate regions. It is not les deux solitudes

Our country is not a hotel. It is not a market bazaar.

It is our home and native land.

I feel in you, as I feel in myself, the same simple conviction: that we are not many, but one, not a collection of communities, but one great people, bound to each other by the promise of equality, opportunity and justice for all.

This is my Canada. I will try to speak for it and defend it. I am sure you will too. Thank you for your attention.