Ottawa, Ontario, Tuesday, January 22, 2013

One of the wonderful privileges of this office is recognizing the generosity of those who serve their communities. So it is with great pleasure that I join you for this investiture today.

As you may know, I have dedicated my mandate as governor general to fostering a smarter, more caring nation. I also refer to this as having keener minds, kinder hearts, something that the friends and supporters of the YMCA have been doing for no less than 160 years. This is even more remarkable given that Canada itself is still a few years shy of its 150th birthday in 2017!

The YMCA offers us an extraordinary example of that which has long been right and good about our country—that is, the tendency of Canadians to be concerned for others, and to want to help. We care about our neighbours.

As this year’s inductees into the Fellowship of Honour demonstrate, the spirit of caring is alive and well in our communities today.

These individuals come from right across Canada and—through their lifetime contributions as YMCA employees and volunteers—they have made a real and lasting impact on the lives of others. Their years of service speak volumes about their dedication to helping people from all walks of life to grow and to flourish in so many different ways.

As companions and officers of the Fellowship of Honour, these individuals are leaders at the international, national and regional levels, and they represent our very best.

Now, I’m sure that each inductee would be the first to tell you this honour belongs not to themselves alone, but rather to the thousands of members, volunteers and donors who support the work of the YMCA—not to mention to those whom you serve.

And while that is of course true, we also know it is individuals such as those being honoured today who lead the way by their example.

Let me illustrate this with a story.

Some two decades ago, Mother Teresa came to Montréal. One of our neighbours, moved by her work with the poor in Calcutta, asked Mother Teresa how she could help. She replied: “Just look around you. In your own neighbourhood there is a family who needs your care and love.”

Shortly afterward, I read a criticism of Mother Teresa’s work. Her shelter in Calcutta gave succour to perhaps 200 people in a city where millions lived in abject poverty. Her work was described as one small drop in an ocean.

Let me explain. My children, aged 2 to 9 at the time, would criticize the entertainment I was providing at their birthday parties. They would ask me, “Why can’t you do a magic show like Dean MacFarlane instead of telling us ghost stories that no one believes?”

At that time, Andy MacFarlane was the Dean of Journalism at the University of Western Ontario, where I was the Dean of Law. Being quite competitive, I attended the next birthday party at the MacFarlane home, where Andy was dressed as a magician, with a long cape and flowing sleeves. He was performing a magic trick, turning water into wine. He took a glass of clear water, raised it in the air, and uttered that magic phrase, “Abracadabra!” He then swept the glass into his sleeves while whirling 360 degrees, surreptitiously adding a few drops of red vegetable dye into the glass, and emerged with a glass of a lovely rose-hued liquid.

At that moment, I realized that Mother Teresa was changing the culture of Calcutta, and indeed that of the world. It was the transformation of the water—not the addition to it—that was improving the lives of so many families.

The shortcomings of this criticism were that we were looking at her work from the point of view of physics, rather than chemistry.

That is what these wonderful people do: they change the culture of our country.

Having worked and volunteered with numerous wonderful organizations throughout my life, I know the importance of leadership, and of the important role each individual plays in overall success.

Just as the YMCA exists to serve people, it is people who determine this organization’s effectiveness. The success of the YMCA is the success of its volunteers and supporters, and vice versa.

As patron of YMCA Canada, I offer my congratulations to each of this year’s honorees. Thank you for leading the way to a smarter, more caring Canada.