Economist Jack Mintz gives a speech after accepting the Gordon Gibson Memorial Citizenship Award from the Aristotle Foundation, in Calgary on Oct. 7, 2026. Photo by Courtesy Aristotle Foundation

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The following is excerpted from a speech delivered by economist Jack Mintz upon accepting the Gordon Gibson Memorial Citizenship Award from the Aristotle Foundation at an event in Calgary on Wednesday.

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I am deeply honoured by the Aristotle Foundation’s awarding me the Gordon Gibson Memorial Citizenship Award. Over the years, I enjoyed many interactions with Gordon, especially when I was president and CEO of the C. D. Howe Institute, whose events he regularly attended. Gordon’s steadfast support for democratic reform in Canada led to better governance and national unity — and, I daresay, deeper support for Canadian values. This is consistent with the objectives of the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, which reminds us we should appreciate Canada as a country like no other, with its unique tradition and history.

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Tonight, I want to explore what those Canadian values mean and how at times we stray from them — at our peril.

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Let me be clear: Canadian values are not European values. They are not American values. They are our own. True, liberal Western societies have been deeply influenced by the classical Enlightenment philosophies, with their emphasis on inherent individual rights as a reaction to the despotism that was common until then. Today, Western societies share common Enlightenment ideals, including democracy, human dignity, freedom of speech and the rule of law.

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In 1789 the French Revolution promised “liberty, equality and fraternity.” It also professed “popular sovereignty,” meaning that power should belong to the people, not the King.  The Americans’ Declaration of Independence had declared, 13 years earlier: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

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Canadians uphold liberal Western values, too, but also “peace, order and good government,” the foundational principles of our constitution. We believe in liberty but also in collective welfare and political and economic stability. Perhaps that reflects our historical struggle to meet the aspirations of two distinct European colonial powers and the many First Nations who lived here before the arrival of British or French settlers. With immigrants later coming from all over the world, we became a “mosaic,” not a “melting pot” like the United States.

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Canadians can take pride in having through the centuries welcomed millions of people from all over the world, including my own grandparents and my wife’s parents, who escaped anti-semitism in Europe. Despite the challenge of earning a living and dealing with a new culture, from the 17th century on new Canadians have built successful businesses, strong public institutions and livable communities.

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We have chosen a federal approach to government, with sovereign powers given to the provinces to accommodate regional diversity. Canada is far more decentralized than most federations. With federal institutions poorly designed to reflect regional interests, our provinces became the protectors of those interests. Although conflicts arise from time to time due to differences in cultures or claims on wealth, so far our adherence to Western liberal values and peace, order and good government has held the country together.

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This focus on stability tends to make Canada more conservative — in a “small-c” sense — in maintaining our democracy. Europe has had a more checkered history, with its frequent political ruptures and wars, which the creation of the European Union did much to subdue. But we don’t want to be Europe, with its history of authoritarianism and currently overbearing bureaucracy and high public spending and taxes.