Over its 146 year history, Canada has benefitted from many thousands of truly exceptional leaders, visionaries and friends of our country, but Canada has never had a better friend than Tom d’Aquino. Tom’s work has helped formulate the basis of some of the most important cornerstones of our society’s business, social and government policy in the last three decades. Millions of Canadians have benefitted from his work.

There are no Grammy Awards or Junos or Oscars given for any person who builds policy. But if there ever were, Tom probably would have won every award in every category including the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tom has been a true friend to the Canadian and global physical environment which he loves dearly. He is also one of the finest Canadian business ambassadors and leaders this country has ever generated and sent around the world to represent our country and the Council. Through his work, he has developed literally thousands of global friendships. He is and always has been respectful, thoughtful, caring, insightful.

Tom d’Aquino recognized early on that strong military policy was required if you were going to have strong foreign policy. He recognized that basic research is an essential part of the innovation agenda. He recognized that applied research is part of the productivity agenda. He understood that this country, a market of 33 million people, not only had to have a better balance sheet but we had to do better. We had to reach out to China, to India, and to Brazil. He understood that the prosperity agenda was the way in which the Canadian business community could bring the American business community to work with us as we tried to deal with what was often a recalcitrant Congress. If Tom d’Aquino pushed us all, it was because he recognized how important it was in a world of mega economies that Canada’s values and Canada’s ability to stand first prevail, that we had to be better.

As is so evident in tonight’s tributes, there is more to Tom’s life than business and to be truly successful in business you need to have a life; to truly contribute to our great country, you need the mix of skills that Tom possesses.

Canada needs a corporate world which can see the bigger picture, anticipates the major issues and has the dexterity to respond. Tom has made that more likely through his interaction with the past and current Canadian corporate giants, his encouragement of the next generation and the institutional legacy of excellence that is the CCCE.

The enduring contribution of Tom d’Aquino is that he encouraged and he led Canadian business to define its interests broadly. His articulate and crucial engagement in the free trade debate helped win that debate – but it also defined Canada’s business interest as being more international than it had been before, as a world-wide player. And in debates about our unity at home, Tom always defined the Canadian business interest as genuinely national.

Tom is truly, in the most literal sense, a man of the world. Global issues have been his passion from the outset. Throughout his term as president of our Council, Tom has been relentless in encouraging Canadian business leaders to think more globally. He also is an enthusiastic ambassador for Canada. As Canada emerged from decades of deficits, he organized a series of events at the World Economic Forum in Davos to drive home the good news of Canada’s Northern Renaissance. And over the years, he has spoken to audiences in more than 100 cities across 40 countries.

He has been determined to see business play a more prominent role in international gatherings of political leaders. In 1997, he organized the first-ever APEC CEO Summit in Vancouver, at which six APEC Leaders and more than 20 ministers of trade and foreign affairs addressed 200 of the Asia-Pacific region’s most prominent business leaders. Those of us who had the pleasure of attending, well remember what an impressive event it was and take pride in knowing that the CEO Summit is now entrenched as part of the annual APEC gathering.

He has led two CEO missions to China and misses no opportunity to buttress relationships with this huge and dynamic partner. He led a CEO mission to India in 2007, and together with our counterparts at the Confederation of Indian Industry, he laid the groundwork for upcoming negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement. He provided similar leadership in the successful efforts to launch broad negotiations with the European Union. Tom’s intense interest in global issues is not limited to commerce. From the earliest days of the Council, he has worked to strengthen the capability of Canada’s military to contribute to global peace and security, from our Cold War era role within NATO to today’s role in Afghanistan and other trouble spots around the world.

Tom has been personally engaged in every chapter of the evolving debates over energy security and climate change, from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to Kyoto to a meeting in Washington just last month of G20 business leaders preparing for December’s climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

He is one of the most important Canadians that I have met in my lifetime. He’s played a very important role in helping Canadians better understand some of the issues we are confronted with economically, socially and politically. He is one of the few people who has been able to draw the direct line between politics and economics and the broader noble future of the country.

Tom sees a country that economically can do better...not just for the sake of doing better economically but because it means people will do better and will be able to contribute more. This will make all the values that we hold dear to our hearts that we call our Canadian values -- whether it’s healthcare or international aid -- it makes them all the more significant because then we will be able to do more of what we love doing, what we believe in. And the Northern Edge that he speaks to is certainly something I believe in deeply.

Most people think about Tom d’Aquino as being all about politics and policy, about free trade and deficits and taxation and competitiveness. He’s not. Tom is truly a renaissance man, a person of restless curiosity and of intense engagement in every part of our country’s social and cultural life.

Tom is simply a man who cares. He cares about people. He cares about issues. He cares about his country. Tom, thank you for everything you have done and I’m sure will continue to do in making our country and our world a better place.

[Tom] Thank you for your public service. You have been bold, enterprising, and passionate for the causes you have embraced – usually right, frequently successful. Quite a record!

Good policy is gold. But good policy discourse is platinum. Today, Canada as a part of the newly globalized economy is emerging from the first genuinely global recession. But we are doing so in a position of relative and remarkable strength and with a body politic that I believe is more educated and more realistic about both the challenges and opportunities that lie before us than is the case in many other countries. Tom d’Aquino has played a very key role in making this the case and we all thank him for it.

Nous avons toujours partagé un but commun: faire du Canada un acteur de premier plan dans l’économie mondiale.

On te connaît comme un brillant avocat, un auteur chevronné, un analyste respecté, un professeur éminent, un administrateur recherché, un conférencier charismatique, un porteparole convaincant. Mais il y en a une facette de toi que je voudrais aussi souligner et ce sont tes propres qualités de dirigeant. Tu as tenu la barre de CCCE durant près de trois décennies avec une fermeté qui ne s’est jamais démentie. Tu as été le rassembleur qui a nous a permis d’unir nos voix et notre action au-delà des partisanneries, des intérêts particuliers et des horizons divers d’où proviennent les membres du Conseil. Avec vision, tu as su discerner et indiquer la direction vers laquelle faire porter nos efforts, sans jamais dévier de ta route ni te laisser arrêter par les obstacles.

En fin stratège, tu as eu la capacité d’identifier les moyens à prendre pour atteindre nos objectifs. Tu as l’envergure et l’ambition qui sont la marque distinctive des grands leaders. Ta motivation profonde a été de voir les entreprises grandir, se développer, et participer activement à une économie mondiale libre et ouverte. Tu es réellement un penseur et un acteur de la mondialisation.

You should be very proud of your contribution to public policy in Canada over so many years, as you have had a great impact on our country and society. From the debates on free trade, to deficit reduction, to Canada’s competiveness in the world, you have always represented your views and those of the CCCE in a professional and persuasive manner. Few people have had a great influence on economic policy in Canada over such a long period, and you leave the CCCE having established an enduring legacy.

What a distance you have travelled since those early days when, together with enlightened senior representatives of the business community (including my father), you began to build the Business Council on National Issues.

Under your leadership, the BCNI and its successor, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, have had a profound and very constructive impact on public policy in Canada.

As Chief Executive Officers, all of us who are committed to the CCCE and its vital role owe you a debt of gratitude for the enthusiasm, energy and determination you have applied to ensuring that our voices were heard by Prime Ministers, Ministers and the Senior Public Service over the years.

Good public policy demands direct dialogue between the public and private sectors. It’s especially critical in our increasingly complex and competitive world. You’ve helped foster and sustain conversations on some of the most important policy initiatives in the past 30 years. That’s one of the ways you’ve stood out as a leader, and in my view it’s a big part of your legacy at the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.

What’s more, you’ve always been a strong advocate for Canadian prosperity and, as a result, been a driving force behind causes that have had a profound impact on our standard of living. It’s no wonder people would use words like “influential”, “effective” and “true champion” to describe you.

Bottom line: you’ve made a huge impact, and Canada is better for it.