November 19, 2004
Check Against Delivery

I want to start with my congratulations to the Board of Trade for hosting this leadership summit every year over the last four years. It is important to take time out from the challenges we face on a day-to-day basis to think about where we want to go in the long term - to think about what our horizons are and to think about what we can accomplish when we work together. We live in an exceptional place, with exceptional opportunities for everyone who lives here. We must work together, looking for areas of agreement and building on those areas, on the foundation we've inherited from those who went before us.

One of the challenges we have is to recognize how fortunate we are to live in a part of the world that has not only incredible natural resources but also a truly exceptional package of human resources. Many people visit British Columbia and Canada, and can't believe the diversity we have in our communities.

It's important for us to recognize how we got here. It isn't just because of those of us who live here today. It's actually the people who came before us, the first nations people, who welcomed us to these lands.

As we've had wave after wave of immigration coming from all over the world, the commitment of those immigrants to their vision of Canada has helped our country grow stronger.

A few days ago we celebrated Remembrance Day - a day that gives us a chance to think about the incredible commitment a generation of British Columbians had creating an open and free world - a world where people could pursue their dreams and where democracy had an opportunity to flourish.

We should never take our freedom for granted. We should never take for granted that we live in a place where an individual can make a difference. Where the vision, drive and commitment of an individual can draw people together, using the strength of community to achieve results.

Let me give you an example. In 1978 I worked where Graham works, with Marathon Realty. A fellow came into my office that I knew from when I worked as an executive assistant to the mayor of Vancouver. His name was Rand Iredale. He had a vision for our city. It was a vision that nobody else had for the city at the time. His vision was that we would build a new stadium downtown. His vision was also that the stadium would be moved out into the middle of False Creek and float. Sometimes you have to amend visions to get them accomplished.

But he did have a vision that we would have a new stadium downtown. Everyone said: "Well, Rand, that's crazy." He said: well, look, you know, if we put the stadium downtown, the parking spaces are already built, the hotel spaces are already there. Surely, this is something that makes sense. Instead of putting a stadium in the middle of a single-family neighbourhood, why don't we take it and put it in the middle where the action is, downtown?

I know the powers that be at the time said: "Well, that's crazy. It's not going to happen." He kept on it. And that one person became five people. Actually, it was at the Board of Trade. I can remember this day - I think it was in about June of 1980 - where there was a presentation by the downtown stadium for Vancouver committee. And you know what they did? They showed the meeting a picture. It was a picture of how the stadium could fit into the downtown.

Rand Iredale never gave up on his vision. He kept on pushing it, and the next thing that happened was that a provincial commission reported back and said: "Actually, this is not a half bad idea. Why don't we have a world's fair, and use those resources to help built this stadium? We'll call it Transpo. And actually, while we're thinking of it, why don't we have a transit line that goes by it, and we'll call it SkyTrain?" And everyone said: "Well, it's the province. They can spend money, I guess. Let's do that."

Transpo became Expo, and Expo became an entire generation of building the public's vision of greater Vancouver, of British Columbia. Expo was a vision that went beyond Vancouver. Expo was a vision that reached out first to the province, then to the country and then to the world, and it was a vision we all shared. As Expo was moving down the road towards completion, there were a bunch of people saying: "Oh, we shouldn't do Expo. Boy, there's going to be problems with Expo. Gee, we're not sure if we want Expo."

We went ahead and hosted Expo, and we had a transforming event in our city. I would suggest it was a transforming event for our province, and it was because of one person's vision and commitment and persistence.

We are one of the few countries in the world that have empowered our citizens to shape their world and future if they're willing to stick with it. That's leadership, and that's what every one of you this room is all about. On behalf of everyone in the province, let me say thank you for your commitment to the future of British Columbia.

Graham said I was going to talk to you about our last three years. I'm going to talk to you briefly about it, but I want to tell you this - none of that would have taken place without the commitment of literally hundreds of thousands of British Columbians. None of it would have taken place without the commitment of a caucus that was committed to an idea. A caucus committed to a vision of our province as a leader, a province breaking a new path into the future.

I'd like you to think about this a little bit, because it is part of B.C.'s culture. There are a few times when we have forgotten it, and in fact I think one of the things that was most concerning to me as I went through the decade of the 1990s is that British Columbians slowly had their sense of confidence eroded. They slowly had their sense that they could do anything they wanted eroded.

In our province we can do anything we want, we just can't do everything we want right away. You must have a plan that will take you to where you want to be, and have a vision of where you are.

Today British Columbia is poised on the edge of a new generation, not just of opportunity, but a whole new generation of leadership in our province. We have a little work to do before we can see those doors swinging open, but we've started.

I was born here in British Columbia. I was brought up here, went to school here. I went away to university for four years.

I taught in Nigeria for two years, and it was at that time I started to understand how fortunate we were to be Canadians. I was living in a place in Nigeria that had just gone through the Biafran war. In Nigeria they changed governments with the use of bullets, and I recognized the use of ballots was a far more sensible way of changing governments.

We can't take the democratic process for granted. One of the gifts of citizenship is also one of the obligations of citizenship - one must be involved. You must think of what you want and what you can contribute.

You can contribute as a volunteer with kids on the soccer field, or as someone who's working in an arts organization to make sure that the opportunities of artistic endeavor are opened to the community.

You can contribute by saying: "I have a plan for the city that will make it safer and more secure." You can contribute by saying: "This is what I know, and this where I'd like to go." The simple act of voicing your goals and your objectives are a contribution.

We do have to contribute. We do have to be involved in public life. It is our public life that defines us as a country, a province, and a city.

I would have loved to be elected in 2001 and said, "This is what we'd like to do," and by July of 2001 have it done, but the world doesn't quite work that way. So the first thing we had to do is say: where do we want to go? We believe B.C. is a province with exceptional natural resources, and that we have to open up the world to individual initiatives and imagination.

We imagined British Columbia as a leader in job creation. When we were elected, we were not leading the country in job creation. In fact, we'd gone from the best economy in the country in 1991 to the worst in 2001.

There was a 30 percent "B.C. discount" in terms of investment in our industrial plants and our economic infrastructure. We had to change that, because it's a strong private sector economy that fuels the important public infrastructure and public services so critical to creating a good quality of life for all of us. So Lorne and myself, our cabinet, our caucus imagined a province that was creating jobs, and asked ourselves: what do we have to do to accomplish that?

The first thing we had to do was reinvigorate British Columbians. We had to say to them clearly that if you work hard, you can get ahead. If you work hard, you can do better for your families. We knew one of the challenges that people faced was they felt they were working harder and harder and they just weren't getting ahead at all, so the first day we were elected we sent a message to people. There was a 25 percent cut in personal income tax across the board.

There are still people who say that was a bad idea. It wasn't a bad idea. It led to an economy that has created more jobs in the last three years than any other province in the country: 180,000 new jobs.

You can walk out of this building today and you're going to see Electronic Arts. Electronic Arts is the third- or fourth-largest developer of software in the world. It is here in British Columbia. Do you know what Electronic Arts was doing at the end of the 1990s? It was packaging out their workers. It was taking offices and putting them in Washington and California. Their leaders didn't like what British Columbia was taking from them.

We changed the tax structure, and Electronic Arts closed their Washington office. They moved back to British Columbia. They're expanding in British Columbia. Their headquarters is in British Columbia, and British Columbia is the centre of their work.

QLT is a world-leading biotechnology company, headquartered in British Columbia. Today there's a shareholder meeting where they're deciding whether to pursue a billion-dollar acquisition of an American company that's going to be headquartered at QLT in British Columbia. They're having these discussions because we could hire Paul Hastings, and he's now in British Columbia. Paul can recruit the best from all over the world, and they're in British Columbia. They're taking investments and they're putting them in British Columbia, and today British Columbia is the seventh largest biotechnology cluster in North America. In ten years we will be number one in North America, because that's where we want to go in British Columbia.

All we did was try to get out of people's way. I know if I had a poll today and asked the people in this room, "Is government out of your way enough?" there's a couple of you would think we could maybe get a little further out the way. And we probably can get a little further out the way. So I think one of the things I can tell you today is: we are back, but we've got a long way to go to reach our vision.

Bill Gates once said: things happen a lot more slowly in two years than you'd ever expect, but a lot more quickly in ten years than you'd ever expect. So two years from now we're probably not going to feel too much different, but the rest of the world will certainly know more about British Columbia.

Ten years from now the world will know about British Columbia. They're going to know about B.C. because we are a place that celebrates our diversity. We are a place that actually is going to take advantage of our social connections with China, India, and our location in the Asia Pacific. We are not afraid of the changes that are taking place in the world.

The Pacific Ocean is the ocean of the twenty-first century. There's going to be all kinds of drag, and that drag's going to keep pulling us back to the old world. It's going to pull us back to the east, but B.C. is looking to the west. We're looking to the Asia Pacific. We're building on the great social infrastructure we have.

When I go to China I feel great because I've got folks from British Columbia who know China and they're saying there's a world opening up for us here. We've doubled the number of wood frame houses we're building China - we've doubled it in one year.

They build ten million housing starts a year in China. It is one of the fastest-growing middle classes in the world.

In two years are we suddenly going to be major trading partners with China in terms of softwood? In two years we'll be bigger, but not major. In ten years we'll be major, because we're going to commit to it. We're going to commit with our industry, with Canada, and in British Columbia.

British Columbia is going to drive that market. We're going to drive that cultural shift. We're going to drive those changes. We've already seen those things taking place.

In ten years when they talk about Canada, they're going to be talking about British Columbia. They're going to be talking about our province. They're going to be talking about their connections with you.

We also have enormous opportunities in India. The fastest-growing middle class in the world is in India. I was in India last November at about this time. They have a film industry that's burgeoning. We too have opportunities to expand our technology and forest products industries, and to expand our resource industries as we build a stronger economy here and a stronger economy there.

It's an exciting time for us in this province if we're all willing to reach together beyond tomorrow, beyond next year, out ten years to what I've called a golden decade for this province. This is the time for British Columbia.

I have confidence in each and every of you in this room. I've got confidence in the mining industry, in the forest industry, in the technology industry. Let's brag about B.C.'s tourism industry - there is no safer place with any better quality of product than right here in British Columbia. Let's show it off. Let's invite the world, and let's make this the place that they want to come. With your help we can do that, and we will do that.

There are some issues here we're facing, and these issues you're facing are important for all of us. The economy is certainly important. Regional governance and a quality community infrastructure is important.

You've got some great speakers today, people who really know what they're talking about: in health care, in regional development, in tourism development and in economic development. What I ask you is simply this - get excited by the ideas they share with you, and use your imagination. Look ahead to what we can do in this province to build the quality health care system we know is available. Look ahead to what we can do in this province to build our educational infrastructure.

As you talk about skills development and training look ahead to this, British Columbia as the most literate jurisdiction in the world. We must create a foundation of literacy in British Columbia - it is a fundamental skill and we must share it. We must face the fact that 40 percent of British Columbians have difficulty with literacy. We have to help to make sure we help them improve on that. As we do, we will build a better province with more opportunities.

As you look ahead and envision what you want this province to be, let me ask you to be open and forthright in sharing your vision with the public. Make it a public vision. Make it a public picture of where we want to go.

Look ahead. There's a great decade on our threshold. Thank you very much