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[ Applause ]
>> By the authority vested in me by the Senate
of York University, I hereby confer on you the Degree
of Doctor of Laws honoris causa admitto te ad gradum.
Congratulations.
[ Applause ]
>> Chancellor Mcmurtry, President Shoukri,
Members of the Senate, Dean Horvat, Professor Westney,
Members of the Faculty of the Schulich School of Business
and visiting professors from Kellogg as well
as York University,
and of course today's graduates, good morning.
I consider myself singularly fortunate --
and perhaps a bit undeserving --
of the honorary Doctorate
of Laws bestowed upon me this morning.
Honorary doctorates are usually accorded
to note accomplishment and not study.
Convocation ceremonies take place to honor study,
with the expectation of accomplishment,
except that our graduates today have, in many ways,
already accomplished a great deal
in their business and personal lives.
So, brought together, there is, indeed,
always symmetry to these events.
To the graduates, I want to say that you are, each one of you,
the most fortunate of people.
You have prevailed in meeting one
of the most challenging academic tests to be found at one
of the best business schools in the world, Kellogg-Schulich.
Indeed, as President Shoukri reminded us,
the quality of your degree
and the business school has once again been highlighted
in the international media.
Your accomplishments are the result of your efforts,
but also those of this esteemed University and Business School
and the professors who taught you.
But you are singularly fortunate, and indeed,
unusually fortunate as well
because you will be pursuing your various careers during what
is already and evidently one of those great, historical,
and transformational turning points in history.
Two weeks ago, the "Economist Magazine" flagged something
truly illustrative of our world in motion.
During the late summer,
at a time when the Italian government could barely get
enough buyers for its very high interest bonds,
the demand for ultra-low interest Chinese government
bonds was over-subscribed by a factor of four.
Now, there are many ways to describe the shift
in world economic power,
and this is a particularly neat and tidy one.
On a PPP basis, the IMF says that by 2013, in 24 months,
emerging economies output will surpass
that of developed economies.
Collectively, they already have twice the foreign reserves
socked away, compared to the developed West.
Tied to dynamic growth rates are efficiencies of globalization
and the unstoppable progress in computing power
and communications technologies.
These developments become incredible generators
of opportunity, comparable to those
that poured forth during the Industrial Revolution.
This is the world that is welcoming you, graduates,
as you emerge with your fresh Kellogg-Schulich degrees,
and you begin the next stage of your lives.
And I have more good news for you:
the eventual recovery of the West.
John Ikenberry at Princeton recently wrote, "Wealth
and power are moving from the North and the West to the South,
and the old order, dominated by the United States and Europe,
is giving way to one increasingly shared
with non-Western rising states."
Well, I agree on the latter part of this, that indeed,
the 21st century, already a decade old, will have to adapt
to many more sources of international power.
But I, for one, disagree profoundly with the first part,
the "zero sum game" idea that "wealth
and power are moving away from the North and the West."
The rise of China, India, Southeast Asia, Brazil,
and so forth takes nothing away from the immense institutional,
social, intellectual, spiritual, free enterprise,
and scientific wealth of the West, that nexus of values,
curiosity, and energy that made us what we are.
The rise of Asia and the Brics makes these civilization
strengths all the more valuable, as heritage
and provider of forward dynamic.
So the rise of the emerging economies should not be a call
to abandon the ship and all move to Shanghai; it's, rather,
raising the game to another level.
Certainly, we can no longer pretend
that the West will call all of the shots.
Asia and others are newly at the table,
and they will remake many of the rules.
We have to adjust to that and make it work for us.
Indeed, it is this awareness that probably explains why I am
on this stage this morning.
The vantage point offered by my assignment
as Canadian High Commissioner to India provided a front row seat
to observe firsthand the fast lane
of India's economic expansion.
It also permitted me to reflect on the vast wealth of knowledge
and experience that Canadians have accumulated
to develop our own society and find ways
to connect India to Canada.
That is also, of course, what York University
and the Schulich School of Business have done,
crossed borders and linked the emerging and our world.
Certainly, circumstances of both time
and place favored this development,
but an essential ingredient on the road
to success has been the confidence of Dean Horvat
and the Schulich School and York University that such binary,
naturally beneficial
and mutually beneficial connections could be made.
Confidence is a great driver of change.
During almost 40 years of diplomatic life in Asia,
I have become convinced that one of the greatest drivers
of the rise of Asia and the emerging economies can be found
in the confidence of people
to change their lives for the better.
National confidence contributes to economic performance
as a forward engine of change.
I've seen this in Japan in the 1970s and 80s,
in Korea in the 90s, and in both China
and India this past decade.
Nothing succeeds like success.
In the emerging economies,
confident people overcome obstacles
such as bad infrastructure, immature legal, financial,
and business frameworks, corruption, labor constraints,
authoritarianism and bad governance.
Problems that we, in Canada, have,
by and large, learned to manage.
Confident people take risks, invest, start new businesses,
encourage their kids to obtain a good education,
try new technologies and management approaches,
spend money on R&D, and do the myriad things that,
collectively, move a society forward.
It is your duty, graduates, to bring the confidence
that you no doubt feel today, on an individual basis,
to your future business and work places,
and inspire those around you.
This is not a call to become mindless Pollyannas.
It's rather a statement --
and here I am echoing President Shoukri --
that your roles in business
and other institutional settings are not only
to satisfy your personal ambitions, but to contribute
to the success of the broader community.
Thank you very much for the privilege
of being awarded this honorary doctorate, and thank you,
York University and the Schulich School of Business,
for providing our graduates today with the means
to realize their ambitions and to contribute to society.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
[ Silence ]