Big Names on Campus

This afternoon Bob Rae, the Liberal's foreign affairs critic, spoke at Dalhousie. Much to my surprise, Mr. Rae's talk was a generally pleasant experience. For the most part Mr. Rae outlined his cosmopolitan view of the world and how Canada should understand its place in such a world. While I realize there are likely many criticisms of this understanding of the world, it is a view that I find increasingly appealing and worthy of consideration.

When compared to Siobhan Coady and Maxime Bernier, the other two MPs I have heard speak recently, Mr. Rae definitely wins as most engaging and thoughtful speaker. Actually, of these three Mr. Rae is the only one I might say I have a better opinion of now than I had before the speech. In some ways, Mr. Rae also seemed to be the only one of the three to really have a good sense of what he was talking about. The other two didn't seem to have as a strong a grasp on their material.

Tomorrow Dalhousie will be treated to a presentation Karen E. Shepherd, Canada's Commissioner of Lobbying. I am curious to see what she will have to say and if her appearance on campus draws much of a crowd (I hope it doesn't draw too much of a crowd as the room they have booked isn't particularly large).

The ability of the university (and King's) to draw speakers of this nature, as well as people like Rex Murphy and John Ralston Saul (among others), is one of the few ways in which Dalhousie outshines Memorial, the university I was fortunate enough to attend for my undergraduate degree. That Memorial wasn't regularly able to bring in speakers of this nature always frustrated me. How can one have a full education if they don't get a chance to hear some of the influential thinkers (understood in the broadest of terms) of their time?