Senators’ Statements: Alan Broadbent, C.M
Honourable senators, I’m very pleased to welcome Alan Broadbent, Chairman and CEO of AVANA Capital Corporation, to the Senate.
Alan is one of Canada’s leading philanthropists. He is chair of the Maytree Foundation, and I had the honour of serving as its president for close to 15 years, so I know intimately that his reach and influence in the world of philanthropy is enormous.
I could list all the organizations, the accolades, the honours, the books and the achievements, but that won’t really help me make him real for you, so instead, I will take a page from his playbook and provide you with five good ideas that speak to his leadership and his values.
His first good idea is to focus on the strategic use of philanthropic resources. From Alan, I learnt that philanthropy should be strategically deployed to advance the public good. It should take risks that public money cannot take. He insists that philanthropy should not be flirtatious and move from one cause célèbre to another. To this day and from its beginning, therefore, the Maytree Foundation has steadfastly focused on reducing poverty in Canada because he believes that poverty should not be tolerated in our prosperous country.
His second good idea is to focus on the power of policy because it touches everybody, and not just the chosen, even if deserving, few. Just to give you one example, Alan is chair and co-founder of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, and he is rightfully proud of the policy legacy of the institute, which led to the creation of the Canada Child Benefit.
His third good idea is to engage locally, because the local experience is the lived experience. As a great admirer of Jane Jacobs, he has created the Jane Jacobs Prize and Jane’s Walk, which now takes place in 212 cities around the world. Rugby is his other love, and he shares it through the Toronto Inner-City Rugby Foundation with children in Toronto’s underserved neighbourhoods.
His fourth good idea is about good ideas. He loves good ideas, and he has always said that good ideas have long legs, but even the best ideas with the longest legs need leadership capacity, and his mentoring and coaching of young leaders is a testament to this belief.
His fifth and, to me, most precious, good idea is about nation building. He believes deeply that it does not matter when you came to Canada or where you came from, we all have the same responsibility and the same opportunity to stand shoulder by shoulder to build this great country. This he does every day.
Honourable senators, Alan Broadbent is a truly exceptional Canadian.