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Prior to departing to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, The Honourable Stockwell Day, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway gave a keynote speech at the Vancouver Board of Trade on October 29, 2010 in the Pacific Gateway Forum 2010: Greater Heights, Expanding Horizons. The event was hosted by the Vancouver Board of Trade at the Pan Pacific Vancouver Crystal Pavilion which started at around 8:30 AM.

Minister Day highlighted the importance of the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative (APGCI) and the Vancouver Asia-Pacific Gateway as an ideal portal for Asian Pacific manufacturers as Vancouver and Prince Rupert are the two closest ports of entry to the vast North America market. The recent and on-going $10 Billion infrastructure investment in the already efficient Port Metro Vancouver further helped speed goods faster than ever before to major commercial hubs in the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Day also pointed out the stability of the Canadian financial and social structures which enabled Canada to rebound the fastest among all G7 countries in face of the global economic uncertainties. Canada, he asserted, has now completely recouped all jobs losses in the last two years.

Later in the media Q&A session after the keynote speech, Vancouver21.com reporter Ray Van Eng posed a question to Mr. Day about the dynamics of the larger and smaller Asian Pacific trading nations such as China and Vietnam, the trade minister provided some interesting answers.

For the bigger Asian partners like China and India, Day indicated that “we have to assure them that we have the capacity to meet their needs. And we also want to make sure that we are in early on (an) emerging market like Vietnam.” He went on to say that while some Canadian businesses might tend to overlook the smaller markets, the government sees them as markets “with potential”. Hence, the Canadian government wants to inform these smaller markets that “the Asia-Pacific Gateway in Vancouver here is the place to be, thinking in terms of their shipping needs. We want to get the message out early to get us a competitive advantage. So we want to take on the very significant economy like China along with the potential for an emerging one like Vietnam.”

The minister also felt that “more and more Canadian businesses (are) realizing that we still have a huge advantage being right next door to the United States. But as they go through their financial troubles, the more diversified you are, the more better off you are going to be” and the Canadian government will continue to act in ‘keeping taxes down, keeping regulations common-sense and building the infrastructure, so the businesses who want to diversify and take on this huge market in Asia can do so in the best manner possible.”

Granite lion presented by the Shanghai Port Authority in June 1995 to Vancouver commemorated the mutual Sister Port Relationship between the two cities in Asia Pacific. [Photography: Ray Van Eng]

Canadian federal trade minister Stockwell Day gave a keynote address at the Vancouver Board of Trade on October 29, 2010 in the Pacific Gateway Forum 2010: Greater Heights, Expanding Horizons.

Stockwell Day spoke to reporters after keynote address at the Vancouver Board of Trade on October 29, 2010.

The on-going CDN$10 Billion investment in Port Metro Vancouver has major improvements in logistics and transportation systems so as to move goods from Asia Pacific to North American markets faster.


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At the Vancouver Board of Trade on May 20, 2010, Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said that last year we ate more farm fishes than those caught in the ocean, lakes and rivers. And that’s because of climate change. He did not go on to explain why, but the theory is that the warmer oceans and rivers are upsetting marine habitat which in turns depleted the salmon and other fish stocks.

Just recently, research scientists at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) believed that salmons that spent a longer time in the Fraser River’s warm temperature (20-degree in the summer) had a higher chance of dying from parasite infection like sea-lice. Though it may not be related (which still has to be determined), the low salmon return to the Fraser River to spawn have lead the BC government to close the Fraser River for sockeye salmon fishing in the last three years. And it is not just BC. The U.S government also closed commercial salmon fishing along the California and Oregon coast in 2009. Earlier this year, Ecojustice, an environmental legal group threatened legal action against the DFO because the federal agency allowed a fish farm in BC to expand without first doing a proper environmental assessment. Some have blamed the BC fish farm industry for causing sea-lice infestations in wild salmon stocks. The world seems to be increasingly posing tougher questions for corporations and asks them to act responsibly and pay more attention to sustainable development. Clinton’s speech in Vancouver simply reinforces that.

To understand how our desire to develop and have better lives could have environmental consequences, we just have to look at the construction of the Olympic Village. Here, part of Falsecreek Southeast was land-filled and some habitat both on land and in the water were destroyed which caused the DFO to be concerned at first. In response to that and to act responsibly, the City of Vancouver conferred with environmental scientists and consultants. The solution was to built a man-made Habitat Island at Olympic Village to re-introduce marine habitat and flora back into the area. So far that appears to be working. And the Olympic Village is now being recognized as the World’s Greenest Neighborhood. That is all because sustainability has been the guiding principle of the Millennium Water Olympic Village development.

President Clinton’s arrival in Vancouver and his keynote speech on climate change, social inequality, corporate and individual global citizenry couldn’t be more timely to the problems the world is facing today. As the 42nd U.S. president said we all have to do our part, each and everyone of us. In his own words, Bill Clinton said, “We have to do what we can to build up the positive forces of our inter-dependence” and “what we can to reduce the negatives.” Bravo!

Ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton was given a Talking Stick by a First Nations heredity chief after the keynote speech. Standing next to him (photo right) was Carole Taylor, BC politician and former chair of the Vancouver Board of Trade and the evening’s host.


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Former U.S. President Bill Clinton came to Vancouver to give a keynote speech for the Rix Center Engaged Leadership Corporate Citizenship on May 20, 2010 at the Vancouver Board of Trade and later had a Q&A session with Carole Taylor, a local BC politician and businesswoman. The 42nd President jokingly talks about the Canadian hockey gold medal win in the 2010 Olympics, U.S. Republican Congress, climate change, homophobic and other form of prejudices at the Centre for Performing Arts. The audience of about 1,400 gave Good o’ Bill a round of applause for every comedic moment that he generated.



The Centre For the Performing Arts, 777 Homer St. Vancouver Canada

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It is almost impossible to pin down exactly what was being said when former U.S. President Bill Clinton came to town for a speaking engaging and a Q&A session afterwards with Carole Taylor, a former BC Minister of Finance and now a Board of Director with TD Bank.

Sure, Clinton gave his opinion on how we could assist Haiti recover from the earthquake by helping them help themselves and on their own terms because they have the “capacity” (a term Clinton used quite a few times) which means they have the right people and able individuals to rebuild their country. How we could monitor the $9Billion relief fund that is available right now to assist the earthquake devastated nation. By relying on Internet transparency, corruption could be curtailed. Also, the reason why last year we ate more farm fish than ones caught in the oceans, lakes and rivers was attributable to climate change etc. But he expressed much more than that. He riffed it off so many subjects that you got a sense of history and the way the world worked in general and Haiti, South America, China etc. in particular. He then veer off to Vancouver, the geographic location of his speech and the 2010 Games, a historic event and complimented on the good job that we had done. And though he hated to say it, the Canadians deserved to win the Hockey Gold medal. He also praised Canada for being able to withstand the economic crisis much better than Americans did because they leveraged more than we did. Our health care system was so much better than theirs too. Hard to disagree with that. Then he covered Washington, DC, Texas, the Michigan auto industry, a Taiwanese businessman venture into teh U.S. and China, why a dictator like Hugo Chavez could have won a democratic election ‘fair and square’ etc. Almost all in a few sentences. A lesser orator would have confused his audience and seen them drift away. Not with Bill Clinton. That, I guess is the genius of a Bill Clinton speech and why he is one of the greatest speechmakers of our time.

On international trade with China and India, Bill Clinton did think that China still had problems with suppressing political dissidents but the Chinese were becoming more like us i.e. more democratic. He reasoned that we can learn from them in terms of banks and government being more flexible and efficient. But when it came to controlling the media and person freedom, he thought that “we should not adopt their model”. He talked about freedom of our political and social lives but shied away from using the words ’human rights’. He pointed out that India didn’t have the same problem as China had in that respect. But he was also embarrassed that China spent more than the U.S. on solar and wind energy.

Really, the content didn’t matter as much as they seemed. Even his opinions on a wide range of subjects were not as important as the way he made us see the world and draw our own conclusion. In less than 50 minutes, he made all of us felt what made a great society or even in a broader sense, a civilization which he dappled on briefly and spoke about the Pharaohs of Egypt. From the macro to the micro, he urged all of us to get involved and it was obvious that it was everybody’s job to engage in the political process to affect change. We all ahve to do our parts. Mr. Clinton said, “So if you accept my analysis, then it is obvious what everybody’s job is, as a citizen, then it is obvious that in the 21st Century, we have to do what we can to build up the positive forces of our inter-dependence” and “what we can to reduce the negatives.”

So what is the best way to sum up his speech? His title of the engagement said it the best—Embracing Our Common Humanity. When Carole Taylor challenged him to use only one word to describe his legacy, the 42nd President of the United States thought for a moment and then replied, “Better.” The crowd of about 1,400 at the Centre For Performing Arts gave him a resounding round of applause. Clinton had a late arrival and the evening lasted until 6:30PM, half an hour longer than planned. The former U.S. president was welcomed with a traditional First Nations song and ended the speaking engagement when a heredity chief presented him with a Talking Stick. To conclude the event, Carole Taylor announced over the microphone that Mr. Clinton himself cherished aboriginal gifts.

When he stepped down as president of the United States in 2001 with a 65% approval rate, I thought he went on to become the president of the entire world. And if we as global citizens were able to vote for him, many of us simply would have. Was it tough to be a president of any kind? Not with Bill Clinton, it would seem. He actually made it look easy with suave salesmanship, personal charm and oratory skills.

The Centre For the Performing Arts, 777 Homer St. Vancouver Canada

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