SPEAKING NOTES
Wade MacLauchlan
Liberal Leader
PEI Liberal Leadership Convention
February 21, 2015
2:30 PM
Prince Edward Island Convention Centre
Charlottetown
EMBARGOED UNTIL 3:15 PM February 21st
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Speaking Notes: Wade MacLauchlan
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February 21, 2015
Friends. Fellow Liberals.
It's a great day!!
To be a Liberal on Prince Edward Island
And to be a Prince Edward Islander
I stand before you today with great humility,
With a full heart
With unbounded enthusiasm for the task we are about to undertake,
And with optimism for our future.
Humility is an important trait in a political leader.
It starts with an appetite to listen - and to learn.
A leader must have optimism. I offer you mine.
I offer you my full heart for Prince Edward Island
This province that we love, and that we are dedicated
to making into a better place for our future and for future generations.
Since announcing my intention to be a candidate for our party's leadership on
November 28, I have traveled more than 10,000 kilometres throughout our
province. On Wednesday of this week, I covered the first two kms on snowshoe.
I’ve met with farmers in 30 communities, from west of O'Leary to east of Dundas
I've met with fishers and been in state-of-the art food and seafood processing
operations throughout our province.
I've visited community inclusion workshops, group homes, family violence
shelters, food banks, and organizations offering services for addictions and
mental health.
I've met with innovative manufacturers and workers in Borden, Coleman,
Summerside, Montague, Charlottetown, Slemon Park and elsewhere.
I've been in schools and early learning centres throughout our province and met
with students and staff at Holland College and the University of Prince Edward
Island.
There have been roundtables on key themes throughout PEI.
Le lendemain du lancement de la campagne, j'ai passe la journee avec la
Federation des municipalites de l'IPE a Village Abram. Jeudi de cette semaine,
j’ai eu un rendez-vous a Summerside avec la Societe St. Thomas d’Aquin et le
conseil scolaire francophone de l’IPE.
What have I learned during these almost-three months?
That Prince Edward Islanders are proud of our province.
That we have a special sense of place and community.
That we are resilient and resourceful.
Islanders know that we have challenges, the two greatest of which are economic
growth and demographic change.
Those are the two dominant themes: people and prosperity.
A third theme is open government and citizen engagement. Islanders are
interested in politics. We lead the country, by long strides, in voter participation.
We must build on that, and strive to do better.
Islanders understand and value leadership.
They want leadership that is positive and optimistic.
Leadership that is strong, experienced and resourceful.
I offer you mine, drawing on decades of involvements in community,
philanthropic and business endeavours, as a student of the leadership of our
longest-serving premier, and as President of the University of Prince Edward
Island.
During my 12 years as UPEI president, student enrolments doubled, funded
research activity increased more than five-fold, and our provincial university
moved from 18th to 5th place in national rankings.
For each of the twelve years, we had balanced budgets or surpluses, and all
capital developments were fully funded.
During eleven of those twelve years, the government of PEI was of a different
political stripe than the government in Ottawa.
Notwithstanding that political divergence, we achieved great things that almost
invariably required federal-provincial cooperation. I know about working together.
My leadership will be collaborative. And our Liberal party will take the high road.
We will call on our better nature.
And we will call on others to be better natured.
Prince Edward Islanders and Canadians are tired of petty politics, and they are
tired of chippiness and cheap shots.
They want to see their leaders govern .. on all sides of the house.
A long-serving U.S. congressional leader made a wise observation as he was
stepping down last month, saying: “Partisanship is easy. Governing is hard.”
Let me tell you about how we will govern.
Our priorities will be Prosperity, People and Engagement.
Prosperity starts with growing our economy.
The fastest and most sustainable way we can do that is to build on our success
stories, to increase sales of our goods and services to other provinces and
internationally. Last year we set new records, building on a multi-year trend.
We can and must do better, and we have the goods and services, and the culture
and work ethic to back it up.
Speaking of culture, we must place greater emphasis on culture as a leading
feature of who we are and focus on cultural industries as an area of growth and
development.
We cannot prosper without an effective population strategy. That requires
building on our successes in immigration.
We must do better in retaining our own talented and most mobile people. We
must encourage expatriate Islanders or people connected to the Island to return,
or to find other ways to join in the effort to make PEI more prosperous.
We must encourage a culture of entrepreneurial leadership.
Our greatest asset in Prince Edward Island is our people.
People live in communities. We must strengthen our communities, including our
rural communities.
People expect and value health and education. Education is strategic
importance. We will build on past investments and achievements, and strive to
do better. We should direct the greatest possible share of our human and
financial resources to front-line services in both health and education.
Prince Edward Islanders take special pride in our natural landscape, land and
water. We must all be conscientious stewards of our environment.
PEI is a world-leader in renewable energy. We can do more.
Renewable energy is an important first step as we turn our attention to climate
change.
We must work to enhance citizen engagement.
This starts with open government. We have an opportunity to be innovators in
making government data open and accessible.
We must be good and accountable stewards of public finances. We must
balance our books.
Government should lead by example.
We must strengthen our local governments.
We should build on our track record for high voter participation and find new
ways to engage young voters.
These will be our priorities: Prosperity, People, Engagement.
When you leave here today, you will be given a package of business cards.
Perhaps you thought you had seen the last of these. They’ve been updated.
They still say: Join the Liberal party.
They now say: Prosperity, People, Engagement.
You can use them for any of three purposes:
encourage someone to join the party
encourage someone, especially a young person, to vote and to be
engaged in the political process
join us in thinking about the most effective ways possible to act on
“Prosperity, People, Engagement” as strategic priorities
Our government will have a further strategic priority: to put Prince Edward Island
on the map, nationally and internationally.
We know this is a special place, and that we have a rare sense of community.
We have great and unique products, services and accomplishments to share with
the world.
As your Premier, I look forward to leading that effort.
Prince Edward Island is increasingly a place that attracts people from around the
world.
International students come to the University of Prince Edward Island and
Holland College in numbers well above regional and national norms.
Two days ago, February 19, we celebrated is the first day of Chinese New Year.
For those of you who speak Mandarin,
新年快乐 / 新年快樂
Happy New Year
The Liberal government that I lead will give primary importance to our
relationships with the Mi’kmaq people. I am deeply appreciative of and honoured
by the Welcome offered today by Chief Brian Francis of the Abegweit First
Nation. I share with Chief Francis and Chief Matilda Ramjatton of the Lennox
Island First Nation, as well as with Mi’kmaq elders and people throughout our
province, a sense of optimism and opportunity as we look to the future.
The earliest days of this campaign included visits with both the Abegweit and
Lennox Island First Nations. At Scotchfort, on day 1, Chief Francis presented me
with a dream catcher, which is the beautiful handwork of Marie Knockwood. I
have it with me today. To catch all of our dreams.
Wela'lin
Prince Edward Islanders are proud Canadians.
We are proud of the seminal role of the 1864 Charlottetown conference.
As premier, I look forward to building on my previous involvements in national
and regional endeavours to represent our province well and to work together with
the federal government and other provincial governments to address national
and regional challenges and to make Canada a better place.
I look forward to succeeding Premier Ghiz as chair of the Council of the
Federation, and continuing his leadership role on health innovation through the
Council.
Je suis fier d’etre Canadien. J’ai envie de contribuer comme premier ministre sur
la scene nationale et interprovinciale.
On a day like this, along with humility, optimism and an overriding sense of public
service and responsibility, we feel grace.
It is a time for thanks.
To Krista Kelly Soper for moving my nomination and Blair Campbell for
seconding it.
To the organizers of this fine convention.
To the co-chairs and manager of my campaign, and to the many volunteers and
friends who have helped out.
As Premier Robert Ghiz said in his remarks last night, and as we acknowledged
in a fine event earlier this afternoon, an effective political party relies
fundamentally on its volunteers.
There is at least one couple here today who met at the 2007 Liberal victory
celebration. Today they have two beautiful children…. further evidence that the
2007 election was a turning point.
To Premier Ghiz, many thanks were said yesterday. Let me add mine. For your
years of building and leading the Liberal party, and for serving our province as
premier.
Through you Premier, I thank all of the people who have worked hard to build the
Liberal party of Prince Edward Island and to serve our province in government.
I especially thank the people who have put their name on the ballot with you
through successive elections. There are easier paths in life. There is only one
reason to choose this path, and only one motivation that can lead to success,
and that is a commitment to public service.
I thank those who sent greetings by video: Frank McKenna, Naheed Nenshi,
Kathleen Wynne, Brian Gallant, Justin Trudeau, and Alex Campbell, and the
members of my family, big and little, and from near and far.
A supportive and understanding family is essential in public life. It helps if your
family is interested in politics. Mine is. My mother is here today, and my father is
here in spirit.
My partner Duncan’s world is the theatre. That may be as good as it gets. In
addition to love, patience and support at home, I get theatrical direction. This
may give new meaning to “political theatre.” Thank you Duncan.
Many people have asked me, “Why are you doing this?” Sometimes, I think they
mean, as we used to say, “Do you need your head examined?”
Many thoughtful people, people who care about public affairs and the future of
our province, mean something else when they speak about why I am doing this.
On Thursday of this week, I met with the Société-Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin in
Summerside. Suite a la reunion, Aubry Cormier, qui est directeur général de la
Société, m’a felicité et m’a dit qu’il croit que je suis interpellé de servir comme
premier ministre de l’IPE.
The word interpeller has many meanings that offer useful insight into the
question of why I would seek to lead our province. It generally means that one is
“called.” It could also mean that one is “challenged,” “questioned,” “worried,” or
“engaged.” I am all of those, and I believe that I am called to do this.
On Thursday evening at the Chamber of Commerce in Summerside, Dan Kucher
gave a fine introduction, constructed around the question of why I would do this.
Dan summarized by saying that for Wade MacLauchlan to be premier of Prince
Edward Island is the culmination of everything else that I have done in my life,
which Dan said has been aimed at making PEI and Canada a better place.
Friends and fellow Liberals, those words are inspiring and challenging. As I stand
here today, I am both inspired and challenged. And I know that you are too.
For concluding thoughts, let me offer three:
First, I turn to our youth. One of the most enjoyable visits of my travels
throughout the province was at the Early Learning Academy in Rollo Bay, where
Ben Chiaisson led a group of children in enthusiastic reading of a story about a
man who had a habit of bursting buttons from his coat, one at a time. The
conclusion of the story, greeted with wild cheering and laughter by the children,
who knew the story by heart, was that after all of the buttons had been burst, the
man still had his belly button. Leave it to the children to remind us of the
essentials.
For a second concluding thought, I turn to the other end of the age spectrum.
Margaret Shaw of Desable is 106 years of age and is unchallenged as the oldest
Liberal on Prince Edward Island. When I approached Mrs. Shaw in a senior care
facility, it was clear from her bright flashing eyes that she knew who I was and
what I was doing there. She told me that she had voted Liberal her entire life.
Notwithstanding her unwavering party loyalty, Mrs. Shaw still has opinions about
politics and politicians. She told me in a clear voice:
“I have one piece of advice for you. Speak to everyone and be nice to them.”
The voice of experience.
For a closing thought, I turn to none other than our province’s preeminent
philosopher, Stompin’ Tom Connors.
In what I refer to as “The Attitude Song,” Tom reminds us that: “You gotta tune
your attitude in.”
Folks, as the Liberal party of Prince Edward Island concludes this great
leadership convention, I am confident that our attitude is tuned in.
And as I accept your mandate to become your leader and the 32nd premier of
our province, I have my attitude tuned in. On Prosperity, People and
Engagement.
As Stompin’ Tom has taught us,
If ya don't get at it when ya get to it
You won't get to it to get at it again
This has been an historic day for our party and province.
2015 will be a big year for us, as will be the next four years.
Thank you for your confidence and for your support.
Now, let’s get at it and to it.
-30-
Issued at Charlottetown Prince Edward Island by: Wadepei Leadership 2015
For more information, please contact: Wade MacLauchlan, Email:
[email protected], Phone: 902-394-1377