Graduation Address

"Graduates Urged to Question Future" Daily Gleaner (27 May 1983): 15. (UA Case 67, Box 2)

Fredrik S. Eaton, president of Canada’s largest retail business and a graduate of the University of New Brunswick, feels the leaders of tomorrow are entering a society in which there is much to question.

Guest speaker at yesterday’s 1983 UNB graduation ceremonies, Mr. Eaton told his audience at the Aitken Centre that, "we, as Canadians, are facing questions which go to the very roots of our nation, questions which will determine, not just our economic, but our personal freedoms in the years to come."

"There has always been a need to ensure that our national identity is protected by nurturing a unique culture, added Mr. Eaton. "There has been a need too, for government sponsorship in forging transportation and communication lines, so vital to the continuation of this country.

"Yet, a major factor, perhaps the major factor, in cementing this impossible union, has been our extraordinary ability to create wealth, to create for our citizens one of the highest standards of living in the world. We are able to provide for all Canadians, a birthright, a standard of living, of health care and education, a right to economic and personal freedom, which is the envy of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world.

"However, over the last two decades, this birthright has become distorted," Mr. Eaton continued. "We began to believe that we were entitled to an every increasing standard of living. That each year would somehow be better than the previous year, without any apparent effort on our part."

As a result, Mr. Eaton believes Canada’s competitive position has begun to erode for two reasons. First, because other nations are developing, and second, because Canadians have ignored reality’s discipline. He said Canadians have demanded government to deliver the ever increasing prosperity we expected, but had not earned.

He pointed out that during the last decade, governments have been doing just that by borrowing against our future, by intruding further and further into the marketplace, and our lives. However, Mr. Eaton feels the most oppressive costs are reflected in the loss of society’s energy.

"If we continue to say, 'let the government do it,' that decay eats into the foundations of our individual liberties. Only a system which allows economic freedom, the free flow of capital, competition in the marketplace, can allow the freedoms which flow from it – the press, of association, of opinion, of religion.

"The relationship of economic and personal freedom is bursting upon Canadians. It’s evident in the opinion polls," pointed out Mr. Eaton. "A majority of people now see government’s as a drag on the economy. It is more evident in the recent speeches of politicians who are transforming themselves from champions of interventions, to champions of the private sector."

Mr. Eaton feels the best hope for Canadians is to have the strength and determination to follow through, to focus on the creation of wealth, and to look to ourselves, rather than to government, in pursuing our desires in providing the means to comfort our less fortunate.

"For the past decade, this nation has focused on the distribution of wealth. We have paid scant attention to its creation. Bluntly, what my generation is leaving to yours, is not a very proud legacy—hundreds of billions of dollars of debt. This is a tribute too our weakness in believing government could shelter us from life’s realities, a tribute to the weakness of those governments which encouraged us in this madness," Mr. Eaton continued.

"If we are to be a nation of interveners, who will create that wealth which is to be distributed?" Mr. Eaton asked. "We are now, as a nation, questioning. We are learning again that political freedom is inextricably intertwined with economic freedom, that the free enterprise system provides the wealth which makes possible a birthright for the less fortunate in our society.

"We are developing a new determination to reach beyond the ordinary. To take personal responsibility for our individual destinies. For the past several years you have had to look inside yourself and ask similar questions. You have struggled, and you have succeeded in graduate studies," Mr. Eaton remarked to the attentive graduates.

"You have learned to stretch your minds and to magnify the human spirit. Your achievement in being here is assurance that it is possible for humankind to reach beyond the ordinary. You have a vision of how great this free Canada of ours can be. Canada needs your vitality, your courage to dream, and to dare, and to question."