Inauguration Dinner for the Lester B. Pearson Chair of International Relations (Oxford University)

It is a privilege and a pleasure to honour a great Canadian tonight, Lester B. Pearson.

A privilege because, more than anyone else, he showed Canadians why international affairs matter to each and every one of us.

Canadians responded by taking up the challenges of internationalism. And Mr. Pearson showed the world that Canada matters to all who value peace above war; tolerance above hate; cooperation above conflict.

He taught all of us that Canada can make a difference when we pull together and work for common goals.

It is a personal pleasure because Prime Minister Pearson was my first boss in Ottawa when I worked for him as Parliamentary Secretary in 1965. The establishment of the Lester B. Pearson Chair of International Relations at Oxford University honours the man I knew -- his intellect, his love of the university, his great affection for Britain and for St. Johns College where he studied as a Massey Scholar in the 1920s.

He was a pragmatic man who looked to the future rather than dwelling in the past. He would have been delighted in the establishment of this Chair. It is a living testimonial that combines three of his greatest passions -- Canada, international affairs, and scholarship. All that is missing is baseball.

The words "passion" and "pragmatism" may seem an unlikely combination; but in Lester Pearson, they sat together comfortably.

He was a passionate internationalist, not only because he was committed to cooperation among nations, but because he understood its importance to Canada.

In 1948, he said: "For Canada, bruised by two world wars and one world depression, decisions taken in far-away places have a vital importance for the village square. There is no escaping today the results and the obligations that flow from the interdependence of nations..."

Although interdependence affects all nations, it affects some more than others. Mr. Pearson understood that Canada was too integrated in the world to isolate itself from "the consequences of international collective decisions."

However, he also argued that we did not have sufficient power to "ensure that (our) voice will be effective in making those decisions."

In this one observation, he set the course for post-war Canadian foreign policy; the commitment to a rules-based system where interdependence could be "civilized", where all countries -- large and small -- could look to international law to protect their interests.

Mr. Pearson understood the need for ideals in foreign policy, but he was not an abstract idealist. He was a pragmatist, a man very much of this world. He spent his life pointing out the connections between our immediate needs at home and our higher aspirations for a prosperous and just world at peace.

In 1953, he told an American audience that, for Canada, our first interest is peace, because "peace for us means there must be peace in the international community."

Our second interest, he said, is the "welfare and prosperity of our people, which is inseparable from the welfare and prosperity of others."

Our third concern, he concluded, "less tangible than peace and economic well-being but no less important, is our deep attachment to certain principles rooted in our history and in our experience as Canadians."

Hindsight, we are told, is always 20/20. What was remarkable about Lester Pearson was his foresight, his ability to see the future in the details of the present.

In Mr. Pearson's time, Canada was a middle power attempting to play a useful international role in the aftermath of World War Two. Today, we are doing the same in the post-Cold War era.

Of course, there have been enormous changes over the last forty years. The communist world has collapsed. Nations that were once poor have become major industrial powers. We have a global marketplace driven by technology. Power has become less concentrated, and is as much economic as political.

Today, countries like Canada worry about international competition, not international communism.

We have made great progress. There have been big gains in prosperity around the world. We have a better understanding of the links between physical, social, economic, environmental and political security.

The principle of global citizenship is closer to reality than at any time in history.

Many of the challenges are different than the ones of four decades ago. But, sadly, many of the old problems remain.

Peace remains elusive for millions around the world.

The rights of nations and the rights of individuals under international law must still be defended.

The gap between rich countries and poor, between strong nations and weak, is far too wide.

The right balance between economic development and a healthy environment must be established.

We have much work to do, and we want to get on with it.

To do that well, we need the support and help of all Canadians. In one of his most remarkable insights, Mr. Pearson said in a 1951 speech:

"Foreign affairs are now the business of every Canadian family and the responsibility of every Canadian citizen. That includes you and also the minister for External Affairs. I hope that we will together be able to bring to these problems, so complicated and so exacting, good judgment, calm objectivity, and a sense of deep responsibility."

That is more true today than ever before.

That is why our government has made an effort to consult Parliament regularly on international issues. We want to engage Canadians in dialogue even more in the future, and to do so in different ways, including the use of new technologies. For example, we have asked Canadians through a message on the Internet what they think of Canada taking over the UN operation in Haiti. To date we have received almost 100 responses -- 75% in favour I might add!

Working together, as Canadians, we have made a real difference -- for our country, and for the world.

This is not idle talk. In my meetings with foreign leaders and ordinary citizens around the world, I have been struck by their high regard for Canada. We often behave as if it is un-Canadian to blow our own horn. But we need not worry; there are many people around the world who are only too pleased to do so for us. Again and again, citizens of other countries have saluted us as a beacon of hope for a world where people of different creeds, races and religions will increasingly come into contact with each other.

For people who doubt whether Canada stands for anything, whether we are a real "nation", I invite them to do a little travelling. Not just in this country, where our diversity and civility are obvious, but to foreign countries as well. To the United States and Western Europe as well as less fortunate countries. If we had a better sense of how others see us, it would be the strongest possible antidote to the naysayers.

Each of us, in our own way, is making a contribution. We know that political stability, prosperity and security reinforce each other. The more countries work together for common goals, the more stable are the relations between them. The more private citizens conduct transactions across borders, the greater is their understanding and appreciation of each other. As we build new partnerships, the world becomes a more integrated community of nations. That is good for every single one of us.

There are grounds for real optimism. In Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa there are countries taking bold steps to change the habits of generations. There is greater openness to new ways of doing things, greater incentives for initiative, growing recognition that the cost of conflict is too great to bear. It is the responsibility of all of us to support positive change.

Canadians are ready. On our trade missions to Asia and Latin America, I have been enormously impressed by the vigour and openness of our business people. Working closely with the federal and provincial governments, they have staked out new markets, and brought home tens of thousands of new jobs to Canada. Canadian companies that used to compete against each other now work together to win contracts in the toughest markets in the world. Our exports have reached historic levels, and the future is even brighter.

On the political side as well, we are looking to match the needs of the international community with Canadian strengths.

That is why so many countries have asked for our assistance in supporting their democratic institutions. Because we know how to promote and defend a free media. We know how to run a police force under civilian control. We have a judiciary that is notable for its independence and professional conduct. We have an impressive record of holding fair elections.

We have excellent peacekeepers, and not simply because they are highly trained professionals. It is also because those Canadian qualities of tolerance and respect for different points of view are precisely the qualities the world needs most in its peacekeepers.

In Bosnia, thousands of Canadian soldiers and civilians brought relief and a measure of security to the victims of that terrible war. It was not traditional peacekeeping -- there was no peace to keep. But those who are cynical about what we did achieve need to be reminded of the thousands of people who relied on Canadians to deliver the food and medicine that kept them alive.

Now, after Dayton, we are providing electoral and police training, and help with reconstruction and development of a free media.

And the United Nations is now looking to Canada for leadership in Haiti.

Again, Haiti is not traditional peacekeeping. What is required is nothing less than the building of a civil society that works for its people rather than against them. And Canadians can and want to help in this process, just as they did in Lester Pearson's day.

This is something that Canada does very well, a special vocation that weaves its way through our foreign policy.

When Lester Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize, the world was marked by high risk from nuclear war, but also by a high degree of stability imposed by East-West competition. The Suez crisis threatened to drag the great powers into a war that would engulf us all. Mr. Pearson found a way out of that awful situation. But he did not accomplish this task alone. He and Canada worked within the United Nations system, in part because he always believed the multilateral approach was always the best way for Canada.

We must continue to work hard within the multilateral system that the Pearson generation built, to improve its capacity to meet the problems of today. Canada is in the forefront of efforts to ensure that the United Nations is prepared for the challenges of the future. Last year's G-7 Summit in Halifax helped set out an ambitious program of renewal. We are hard at work to see it through.

There are many more countries than 40 years ago. Building consensus for change is a lengthy and difficult process, even tougher than it was in those earlier years.

But despite the frustrations, isolation is not an answer, and never can be. Mr. Pearson condemned isolationism in the 1950s for exactly the same reasons we condemn it today: Canada has important international interests to defend. We cannot do that if we run away and hide. We either stay engaged, or we allow others to determine our future for us.

Just as Lester Pearson fought against isolationism fifty years ago, we must speak out against the voices of isolation today -- abroad, and here at home too.

Mr. Pearson's generation learned the price of isolation through the most terrible war the world has known. To those in Canada today, on the right and left, whose rallying cry seems to be "stop the world, we want to get off" -- I say, that might make a good bumper sticker, but it makes lousy foreign policy, whether it concerns human rights, trade, or our multilateral responsibilities.

If we have learned anything in the half-century since World War II, it is not to repeat the tragic mistakes of the past.

That is the responsibility that falls to this generation of Canadians, just as surely as it fell to the Pearson generation.

Acting together, using the leverage that a strong and united Canada gives us, we can serve ourselves and serve the broader international community that wants a committed and open Canada to stay in the game.

Renewal is less dramatic than construction, but that does not mean it is not important. Building foreign markets and creating jobs at home takes time. Patience and perseverance are Canadian virtues that we will not throw away at the first signs of difficulty. Lester Pearson would have understood that very well. That is where his pragmatism matched his passion.

Tonight, we honour not only his achievements, but the spirit that made those achievements possible.

The spirit of Lester Pearson is still with us, and still guides us. The principles he stood for are principles we continue to stand for.

As Canadians.

As citizens of the greatest country in the world.