H. John Harker

President and Vice-Chancellor, Cape Breton University

Throughout the Maritimes, billboards proclaim that Ships Start Here, and this is much more than a slogan. It is an elemental fact of life that helped bring about Confederation and makes that Confederation so vital today. The Maritimes means Ships, and Ships, their usage, their design, their building, and their commissioning, means Maritime Canada.

The bid lodged by Irving Shipbuilding garners support from all corners of the Maritimes because of this fundamental reality. We know, as our forefathers knew, how to build ships for Canada. And in building them, we are committed to applying the best of skills and devotion.

Fulfilling the Ships contract will, furthermore, energize the transformation of the Maritimes so that tradition and innovation go together to make for a better Canada. Our university is committed to this and to partnering with others to ensure that all opportunities are pursued, all avenues explored. This is happening today but it is obvious that the great challenge of building the next generation of Ships for Canada will impact on coming generations of Maritime Canadians and their great universities. We are up to meeting the challenge in partnership with universities and business across the region.

From our small corner of the Maritimes, CBU engages globally in ways which range from delivering our degree programs globally, including students on campus in Cairo or on an iPad in Cambodia, servicing alumni who captain the Coast Guard vessels of Kuwait and the Arab Emirates, opening doors for Maritime seafood producers in China, to training off-shore oil operators for the world’s biggest company, ExxonMobil. We know that Irving Shipbuilding, already a partner with us in enabling Aboriginal students to grapple with next generational issues of energy and the environment, has what it takes, and so do we!

H. John Harker,
President and Vice-Chancellor,
Cape Breton University