Rideau Hall, Thursday, November 6, 2008

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Rideau Hall, as you celebrate the 100^th anniversary of your association and for the official presentation of your new armorial bearings.

It is an historic event, a unique one, and I am very pleased and honoured to be part of it.

Permit me to share a more personal comment with you right from the start.

Permit me to say thank you.

Not just for the care you provide to us, but for the care you provide to those we love.

Whenever we are sick or accompany a child, an aging parent, a loved one, or a friend to the hospital, it is you, the front-line workers, who are there to greet us when we are at our most fragile, our most vulnerable.

It is you, the nurses, who first ask about our symptoms, who try to calm our fears and ease our pain, who guide us through the medical universe when we are most in need of reassurance.

You are those flickering lamps, symbolized in your armorial bearings, those flames that warm and soothe our hearts, those glimmers of hope in the dark night of human suffering.

Permit me to share a more personal comment with you now.

Permit me to say thank you.

Not just for the care you provide to us, but for the care you provide to those we love.

I see it all the time when I visit my mother, who is living with Alzheimer’s disease.

We owe so much to you, and there are many among us who could certainly bear witness to your sense of duty, your ability to respond, and your compassion.

Knowledge. Wisdom. Humanity. You put your motto into practice every single day.

You are the front-line workers, at times running on empty, which is not surprising given how difficult your working conditions can be and how demanding the battle you wage against sickness and death.

One hundred years ago, you felt the need to come together, to pool your strengths, to make your voices heard, as one. You formed a pan-Canadian association to carry your ideas, challenges and demands to the highest decision-making bodies.

Your arms, flag and badge are the heraldic representation of those years of commitment, those values you share, those ideals you pursue, with conviction.

Heraldry is rooted in a very basic human need: the need to say who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. The need to assert and express what makes us unique.

The same is true of organizations, institutions and associations such as yours, which are entities in and of themselves, with their own identity.

In order for their meaning to deepen over time, symbols need to “live” in other formats and in many places.

So let us hope that with each use, your new armorial bearings will grow ever more evocative, ensuring that they take their rightful place among the important symbols of nursing in Canada.

This is a very touching moment in your history, and I am so happy to be a part of it as the daughter of a nurse, as honorary chair of your 100^th anniversary and as governor general of Canada.

Thank you.