Vanier Medal @ Rideau Hall

On Thursday May 13th, the Governor General, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, will be presenting IPAC's highest award, the Vanier Medal, to Dr. Gordon S. Smith, the 2009 Vanier Medal recipient.

The Governor General is IPAC's patron and as such, we are honoured that she will be presiding over this ceremony at Rideau Hall.

The Vanier Medal is one of the highest forms of recognition for Canadian public administrators. It was created in 1962 in honour of Canada’s second Canadian Governor General, the Right Honourable Georges-P. Vanier, and is awarded annually by IPAC as a mark of distinction and exceptional achievement to a person who has shown distinctive leadership in public administration and public service in Canada, or who, by his/her writings, has made a significant contribution in the field of public administration or public service in Canada.

Dr. Gordon S. Smith is the Executive Director of the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria and a former distinguished Canadian public servant.

Dr. Smith is well-known as both a practitioner and as an academic in public administration and has demonstrated excellence throughout his long career. Dr. Smith’s involvement within the Government of Canada began with a focus on security and defence in the 1960s and he quickly advanced to increasingly complex and demanding positions, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Canadian Ambassador to the European Union; Ambassador to the Canadian Delegation to NATO; and Secretary to Cabinet for Federal-Provincial Relations. He played the principal role in drafting the major document setting out Canada’s defence policy in the 1970s. He served as a valued adviser on constitutional questions in the eighties.

After retiring from the Government of Canada, Gordon Smith continued serving the interests of Canada within an increasingly complex and interdependent world. In 1997 he joined the University of Victoria as Executive Director of the Centre for Global Studies. He was also Chair of the Board of Governors of the International Development Research Centre from 1997 to 2007 and was appointed to the Centre for International Governance Innovation’s International Advisory Board of Governors in 2006. He demonstrated leadership, networking and idea generating skills during a collaborative project between CIGI and the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria. This project “L20” was ground breaking in paving the way for the recent meeting of heads of government in Washington and the London meeting that focused on solutions to the financial crisis.

Dr. Smith is also a prolific writer and is the author of “Canada and Afghanistan: Is it Working?”among many other books and articles.

I will update all of you on Thursday after the ceremony & I hope to post some pictures as well.