Speech from the Throne

For archives of past Speeches from the Throne, search the Alberta Legislative Assembly's Hansard.

Honourable members and distinguished guests, welcome to the Fourth Session of the Twenty-Seventh Alberta Legislature. It is my honour to deliver the Speech from the Throne, as it is my honour to serve Albertans as Lieutenant Governor.

This position follows a career that has taken me all over the world, including Europe, the Middle East, Central America and the Balkans, as a soldier and proud member of the Canadian Armed Forces. After my military career ended, I served as a volunteer with humanitarian groups helping refugees and children in need in Africa.

In all these posts, I saw many tragedies, including hunger, disease, conflict, violence and war. I also observed the triumph of the human spirit, where people of commitment and compassion worked together to make their communities and their countries stronger.

These experiences filled me with gratitude to live in a country and a province so blessed as Canada and Alberta are. They reaffirmed the values of citizenship and service to others. And they underscored the absolute necessity of democracy and the rule of law.

This is the background I bring to the post of Lieutenant Governor. These are the values I will work to promote through my service. And it is here, in this Legislature, where those values will guide the people Albertans have entrusted with public office. It is here where the people’s business is conducted.

Let it be done with diligence and wisdom, with honour and respect, and with God’s guidance. For surely the times in which we live demand no less of our elected leaders.

As Alberta takes its first steps from recession to recovery, fundamental changes are happening in the global economy. Our province must change too if it is to flourish in the new economy, just as it did in the old.

Albertans look to their government to lead the way. To survey the landscape of both the short-term and the long-term, and plan accordingly. To build a better Alberta, so that the province our children and grandchildren inherit is as full of opportunity for them as it has been for us.

Ladies and gentlemen, your government is committed to investing in Alberta’s future, so our great province can realize its full potential.

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