An odd twist

My previous post started with my new Brompton side-stand, and morphed into international politics.

I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise to me since I have been working for the past five years on the establishment of an ambitious diplomacy scholarship program at my alma mater Concordia University. The project is in honour of Dr. Henry Habib, a professor who taught me to understand politics, and who played a critical role in my career.

Last Thursday the launch of the Henry Habib Diplomacy Accelerator was celebrated at Concordia.

I worked very hard to make the Accelerator a reality, from its inception, to the creation of the project charter, and on to the completion of the endowment funding. As a result I felt compelled to speak at the launch.

As the world has evolved, particularly in the past two years, with Canada under attack from our neighbour, the speech I gave, while short and to the point, came straight from my heart, so much so that I feel the need to share it here with you. You will notice that the words came to me from my previous post.

"Thank you… 

It is truly a pleasure to be here with you on this important occasion. 

I promise I’ll be succinct. 

Canada faces a reality where our neighbour wants Canadians to embrace their wishes. To bend our knees. To submit to their imperial will. To live in a world where integrity, honesty, compassion, reason and knowledge are no longer core values. 

Canada needs standing strategies. 

While a bicycle does very well with one or two standing strategies, Canada needs many more. 

We have more than forty million strategies. 

We have parents, partners, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbours. We elect people we know we can trust to lead us. We are respectful, yet strong. We have a history of courage, of facing powerful enemies, and emerging victorious. 

We suffer what we must, we rise, we stand, and we extend helping hands to those in need, at home, and abroad. 

That is how we earn friendship and respect. 

That is how we stand. 

We are doing this right now, right here. 

The Henry Habib Diplomacy Accelerator will come to play an important role in helping us take stands, and carve paths, in a world where sovereignty and traditional values are increasingly compromised. 

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the time has come, please fasten your seatbelts. 

We are about to accelerate."