Hon. Colin Deacon: Honourable senators, as some of you know, I had a fabulous time at university. Clearly, you remember. It was so fabulous, in fact, that at the end of my first year the dean of agricultural science at the University of Guelph encouraged me to reassess my commitment. I did, and I soon found that I was far better-suited to the practical challenges of the working world.

However, not having a post-secondary degree increasingly required that I create my own employment; that’s how I stumbled onto the path of entrepreneurship. Learning how to turn ideas into businesses — and discovering the countless potholes on the road to success — have taught me the importance of tenacity, risk taking, creativity and resilience.

Entrepreneurship demands that you reflexively turn your problems into opportunities. We live in a world where this characteristic has increasingly become an essential skill. That is why I love learning about programs that train the next generation of entrepreneurs, programs that prove to teenagers that they are capable of creating exciting opportunities and teaching them how to avoid the many potholes that I always seemed to hit.

Take Shad Canada, for example, a national entrepreneurship program for Grade 10 and Grade 11 students that operates at 22 post-secondary institutions across Canada. Shad empowers participants to focus on a real problem, a problem that they’ve seen in their lives or on the news. The Shad staff coach each team of students as they devise innovative real-life solutions with the support of subject-matter experts. There’s nothing hypothetical here.

Bethany Deshpande, a Shad alum who is now the Halifax-based CEO of an ag-tech company called SomaDetect, told me about her experiences at Shad and how they continue to guide her and shape the corporate culture, innovation and success of her company. Bethany powerfully reflected on her experience at Shad saying, “I don’t know who I would be if I hadn’t gone.”

Another example is Outward Bound, a program that equips youth for the future through adventures in nature, testing them physically and mentally. The program empowers students to accomplish things they would never have thought possible, and it does so at a critical age. It creates confidence that enables youth to become a powerful force in the world.

Colleagues, as a consequence of climate change, our generation is delivering an unprecedented challenge to future generations. Investing in programs that strengthen the entrepreneurial culture in Canada will help produce many more creative problem solvers who embrace risk, challenge the status quo and think outside the box.

Thank you, colleagues.

Hon. Marty Deacon: Honourable senators, what an interesting act to follow.

As 2022 draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to celebrate the amazing work of Team Canada over the past year. And remember, we are all Team Canada.

At the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer, Team Canada won 92 medals, placing third in the medal count, its best showing since the 2002 Commonwealth Games. This was an inclusive team, with a record 28 para athletes winning seven medals. Also important is that Canada was the only carbon-neutral team at the games. We also enjoyed the largest broadcast ever for Commonwealth Games, which included incredible streaming.

These games bode well for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where typically Canada’s Commonwealth Games athletes win 70% of Canada’s Summer Olympic Games medals. Also, our Special Olympic athletes are busy preparing for their international games in Berlin this coming spring.

Senators, it was truly an honour a few weeks ago to meet athletes, coaches and volunteers alongside our friend and former colleague Senator Munson and Dr. Frank Hayden, the father of the Special Olympics movement. Watching these athletes in the room being together for the first time in person in three years was uplifting. While the pandemic has led to fewer people volunteering — it’s an issue — we have reason to hope this will improve in due course.

On the pitch, you are all keenly aware of the successes our men’s and women’s soccer teams enjoyed. Just two days ago, Canadian soccer all-stars Christine Sinclair and Diana Matheson announced the creation of a Canadian women’s league, which will launch in 2025. Really exciting.

Slightly less known but just as amazing, our Canadian tennis men performed well, winning the Davis Cup just a few weeks ago. This is a story 15 years in the making, of an organization that needed to do things differently, focusing on high performance, opening a national training centre and hiring international coaches to take the game of tennis to the next level. We celebrate Denis Shapovalov and Félix Auger-Aliassime for this first win in 109 years, but also Milos Raonic, Genie Bouchard, Vasek Pospisil, Leylah Annie Fernandez and Bianca Andreescu.

Finally, we also saw this year bring sport under the microscope for the abuse faced by too many of our athletes at the hands of those they trusted. The stories are being heard, and the work is well under way to better ensure that every athlete, coach and volunteer can feel included and safe in sport. This is taking effort and collective will in a number of areas.

As part of this call to action, I welcome you to join me on Facebook Live next Thursday as I interview leaders who are doing all they can to bring urgent solutions to safe sport.

On a more celebratory note, we also look forward to all of you joining us for some winter activities on Tuesday, February 7, at 12:30, with more to come. Thank you. Meegwetch.