Graduation Address

"Remarks by Matthew W. Barrett, Chairman and C.E.O. Bank of Montreal, Ceremony A." (22 May 1996). (UA Case 67, Box 3)

Chancellor, President, faculty, honoured guests, graduating students, families and friends:

I am deeply grateful to the University of New Brunswick for honouring me in this way. I do not, however, intend to speak at great length. Commencement speeches are like the body at a funeral. You can’t hold the ceremony without one, but nobody expects you to say very much.

One thing I would like to say is how pleased I am to be more closely associated with a university that has always played a central role in the life of this province—and of this country.

Indeed, those who founded the original academy from which UNB grew more than 200 years ago were also, in large measure, the founders of this province. The University is living testimony to their determination to plant in the wilderness not just a settlement, but a civilization. And the development of this school has, in many ways, mirrored the development of this province ever since.

That is why UNB is a national as well as a provincial institution, because this province has always played a role in Canadian national life that is out of proportion to its size. Nothing demonstrates that more clearly than the lives of those who have seen these halls before you. If you want to sample the best of what Canada has to offer, look at the graduates, faulty and friends of this school.

To market Canada, it would make sense to turn to a Harrison McCain—or indeed a Fredrik Eaton. For a poem, it would make sense to look to Bliss Carman or Charles Roberts, who first gave English-speaking Canadians poetry that spoke to them of their own land. For a song, who else but Anne Murray. And if you want a uniquely informed perspective on the Canadian political landscape, you can always call on Dalton Camp.

Today, New Brunswick is playing two critically important roles in Canada that are out of proportion to its size, and the first is its vigorous response to the challenge of an increasingly integrated global economy.

The fast-paced flow of capital and of information, and the widespread liberalization of trade and investment policies have created a world in which national borders mean less every day.

These changes add up to a competitive challenge unmatched in our history. Yet for New Brunswickers they also mean an immense expansion on the horizon. No longer isolated by geography, no longer contained by natural resources, New Brunswickers can now see emerging the boundless opportunities they have yearned for, ever since the great days of sail.

The province is working hard to put in place the elements necessary to take advantage of those opportunities. New Brunswick was one of the first governments in Canada to build a consensus around the need for austerity, yet the tools of education and infrastructure have been assigned priority places on the provincial agenda.

That is one reason why the University of New Brunswick is once again playing a vital role in the province’s development. The university has done much to widen New Brunswick’s stake in the globalized world.

UNB’s foresters and engineers work in every province and all the continents. With roughly 25 per cent of the 12,000 students coming from outside the province—from over 50 different countries—this school is helping to shape an international network, one that will weave close ties between New Brunswick and leaders in business and government around the world.

And at the same time, UNB’s remarkable success in obtaining research support from both government and the private sector is helping to make the university a true player on the national research stage, even as it helps make Fredericton, and New Brunswick, excellent places to live, to work, and to do business.

Of course, one of the crucial elements of New Brunswick’s strategy for economic growth is ensuring opportunity for small and medium-sized business. This is another area where UNB is playing a leadership role, with the recent establishment of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Bank of Montreal is pleased to be an active partner in this ground-breaking program.

That gives me a chance to say how especially important this university is to Bank of Montreal. We have been proud to be your bank for over 100 years. It was here, at UNB, that the Bank broke new ground some thirty years ago by appointing the first woman branch manager in the history of Canadian banking. That may, perhaps, stand as a symbol of how much new ground has been broken at the University of New Brunswick over two centuries.

Yet perhaps the most important thing UNB and Bank of Montreal have in common is that we are both national Canadian institutions, presences with deep roots in our country’s soil. Our stories have been part of Canada’s story for two centuries, and we all, I know, deeply desire that our futures will be part of Canada’s story too.

Of late, it has not always been easy to be sure of that. Yet a visit to Fredericton gives me at least new reason to believe that we can keep our incomparable country whole.

A few minutes ago, I said that this province was playing two roles in Canadian life that were out of proportion to its size. The second of these is of course New Brunswick’s leadership in showing how Canadians of different heritages can live together in a full and fruitful partnership. That is never easy, and I know it has not always been easy here. But I believe we can see in this province a brighter dawn of mutual tolerance and understanding, which will be a new beginning for all of Canada.

And of course, today is a new beginning for every one who is graduating here. Let me offer my warmest congratulations to all of you. Your university years have undoubtedly been enriching beyond measure, in friendships formed as well as in the joys of intellectual discovery. I understand that cannon are no longer fired at UNB commencements to commemorate each graduate student, but do not let that damp the pride you rightly feel in your accomplishments. And I know that pride is also felt by your families and friends, who have encouraged and supported you through university life and who share your happiness today.

Now the choice of a career lies ahead. Let me end these remarks by suggesting that a career in banking can offer many rewards, including some that may surprise you. When I began in banking myself, I wanted, of all things, to become a writer. I got a day job at the Bank of Montreal in London, England to support myself while the masterpieces germinated. And I discovered something totally unexpected—apart from the fact that the Bank had not after all hired another Tolstoy! I found that I was pretty darn good at balancing the accounts each day.

Banking is, of course, about numbers and these days it is particularly about technology. But over and above that, it is about people. When you deal with people’s money, sooner or later you are invited to look at the human condition in all its grandeur and its pathos. You become involved almost insensibly in the great changes of our time.

And that means in turn that banking requires the ability to think laterally, to see the big picture, and to use the qualities of wit and imagination which, as Kant said, have value rather than a market place.

Whatever choice you make, you will make it in times that are challenging indeed, but which also offer almost limitless scope to use what you have learned in this place, and to go on learning throughout life. I envy you your future, and I wish you well.

Thank you very much.