Remarks by
The Honourable John Harvard, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
Scouts Canada
Annual Honours and Awards
Hotel Fort Garry
Saturday, February 26, 2005 - 10:00 a.m.
Scouts and Scouters, members of the Manitoba Council, mentors and leaders of tomorrow, friends of Manitoba,
good morning and welcome to the Scouts Canada Annual Honours and Awards Presentation.
As Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, I am pleased to be here as honorary patron of the Manitoba Council of
Scouts Canada to help you celebrate the outstanding achievements of your members.
The selfless dedication and devotion to the public good exhibited by today’s award recipients makes them
excellent role models for an organization that has been promoting those values for nearly a century. Indeed,
I note that a few of today’s honourees have been promoting the values of Scouts Canada for a half century.
The young men and women and adult leaders being honoured today remind us by their accomplishments that
the Scouting movement is as relevant and timely as it was when Baden Powell's first book was hot off the press.
Looking at the mission of Scouts Canada, we see goals and values that
are now recognized as essential in the growth and development of young
people.
Scouts Canada involves young people in a non-formal education that makes them the primary agents in
their own development as self-reliant, supportive, responsible, committed people. Values – duty to one's
spiritual beliefs, to others and to self – are an essential part of Scouting.
Those are values that manage simultaneously to be time-honoured and absolutely cutting edge.
Schools, teachers and parents are increasingly concerned about the need for education that develops social
responsibility and the importance of volunteering and service. Scouting has known since 1908 that individuals
grow best when they are committed to something larger than themselves.
In discussions of education today we hear a great deal about the theory of multiple intelligences – that
there are verbal, logical, artistic, social, physical and other kinds of intelligences that need to be
developed. Isn't that what Scouting has done for nearly a century, through activities and camps and challenges
of all kinds?
Scouts Canada provides tens of thousands of young Manitobans with priceless experiences that they can
carry with them throughout their lives.
As honoured leaders of Scouts Canada, your contributions will bear fruit
for many years to come, helping to make Manitoba a healthy, just, prosperous
province that we can all be proud to call home.
Thank you and congratulations on the recognition you are receiving today.
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