Speeches & Commentary
Watch Out! Risk of “Downloading”!!
By Alan Broadbent (Maytree Opinion, February 2010)
Canada’s federal government is expected to have a deficit of over $50 billion this year. The Ontario government deficit will be over $14 billion. Neither of these governments expects to balance their budget before 2015, and most experts think it will take much longer. Even Alberta and B.C. will have deficits of $4 and $2 billion respectively.
Appreciating David Pecaut
December 14, 2009: With David Pecaut’s passing, Toronto has not only lost a great civic leader, but Maytree has lost a great friend and partner. David was the pivotal figure in the establishment of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, which he built into a dynamic civic presence which brought together leaders from business, civil society, government, labour, and academia. Using David’s preferred method of establishing a common fact base, he worked with a variety of coalitions to create solutions to persistent poverty, immigrant access to the labour market, diversifying the leadership in the city, environmental degradation, and connecting our regional research capability.
Good Government Should Trump Clever Politics
(Maytree Opinion, January 2010)
On January 4 most Canadians went back to work, some albeit reluctantly. Not so our parliamentarians in Ottawa, who were given an extended prorogated break. Governments, regardless of which level or which party, are the servants of the people. We elect them, pay for them, work with them in the belief that they will go about the business of governing in an efficient, effective and accountable manner.
Social Enterprise in Action
By Alan Broadbent, Chairman, Maytree
Speech at the Third Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise (Thursday, November 19, 2009)
Excerpt: The best way to overcome the big issues and problems is to change the way society thinks and acts. It is by tapping into the power of our collective will, and attendant large public budgets, that we can take the great strides forward. The greatest advances in the wellbeing of populations have always come from public measures: public sanitation systems ended the plagues; public education systems have carried nations into prosperity; vaccination programs virtually wiped out polio and tuberculosis; seat-belt laws have reduced road carnage; and anti-smoking ordinances have reduced lung cancers.
Substance over Style required in the next mayoral election
By Alan Broadbent (Maytree Opinion, November 2009)
When Toronto Mayor David Miller announced he would not seek a third term, speculation started about who might run in the next election. Much has been written about the personalities of possible candidates and very little, up to this point, has been said about what platform the next mayor should run on. This is a mistake, Maytree Chairman Alan Broadbent argues in this month’s Maytree Opinion. In our evaluation of candidates we need to focus on issues, particularly on city building issues such as housing, transportation and immigrant settlement.
Ratna Omidvar on diversity’s competitive advantage
In September 2009, Ratna Omidvar, president of Maytree, sat down with Canadian HR Reporter’s Angela Scappatura to talk about the competitive advantage of diversity in the workplace.
Strong Cities = Strong Canada?
In September 2009, Alan Broadbent visited PublicVoice TV, an online source for leading edge thinking and ideas about critical public policy questions. He was interviewed on whether stronger cities really mean a stronger country and whether cities should be given more power.
Intentionality and instruments: making multiculturalism work
By Alan Broadbent, Chairman, Maytree
Originally published in: Canada Watch (a project of The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University)
Fall 2009: Multiculturalism and its Discontents
Excerpt: To paraphrase Butch Cassidy, it’s not the multiculturalism that’ll kill you, it’s the discontents. The Canadian discourse, at least as reported in our media, has a lot of discontents, and we now have a federal government which traffics in them freely. One of them is multiculturalism.
No time like now
By Alan Broadbent, Chairman, Maytree
Keynote address at the 2009 ALLIES Learning Exchange: Leading with Ideas (Friday, June 12).
Excerpt: Difficult economic times create an imperative to maintain a high level of commitment to the successful integration of immigrants. As a leader in business and philanthropy, Alan discusses the importance and timelineness of the work of ALLIES communities.
The Canada of Tomorrow
Remarks at the Maytree Scholarship 2007-2008 Ceremony
By Judy Broadbent, Maytree President
Graduation ceremonies mark the passage of time- but I think that this graduation ceremony has a particular significance for us today because it marks not only the success of those in the room, but in a sense it signifies the passage of time for Canada.
When [...]
