Dr. Meric Gertler
President, University of Toronto
Address to the Empire Club of Canada
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Good afternoon.
Thank you for that kind introduction, Andrea [Wood, President, Empire Club of Canada]. I am grateful to you, and the Empire Club of Canada, for the opportunity to address this distinguished gathering.
I am also grateful to Tim Kocur on behalf of our sponsor, the Carpenters & Allied Workers Local 27, and to Ms M.J. Perry, Vice-President of Mr. Discount Ltd., for sponsoring a table of students, the constituency that very much represents the foundations of Canada’s future prosperity.
It is lovely to see such a wonderful turnout, including so many friends and colleagues. I would like to extend an especially warm greeting to The Honourable Vivienne Poy, Chancellor Emerita of the University of Toronto.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am honoured and delighted to be speaking to you today.
This Club has a long and esteemed record of hosting important discussions about our country and its future direction.
It is in this spirit that I wish to offer my remarks.
My main argument is a simple one: at a time when our traditional sources of prosperity are being challenged by both cyclical and longer-term change, we need to instigate a local, provincial, and national conversation about where our future prosperity will come from.
