Senators’ Statements: Michael Adams, C.M.

Honourable senators, as I continue to bring outstanding Canadians from Toronto to your attention — what can I say? My city produces great Canadians — I am very pleased to introduce Mr. Michael Adams and his family to you.

Michael is the founder of the Environics Group of research and communications consulting companies, and more recently he founded the Environics Institute, which is a not-for-profit institute that asks the tough questions that need to be asked and answered, questions like, “How different are we really from Americans?”

Michael credits his family history for his engagement and curiosity in public and political affairs. His great-grandfather, Reuben Eldridge Truax of Walkerton, served as Walkerton’s mayor, then MPP and then MP. What he really wanted to do was be a member of the Senate, but then he made the fatal political error of not supporting Mackenzie King in the 1919 Liberal convention. Michael credits this part of his family’s history to his decision to becoming a pollster so that his family could make more astute and informed political decisions in the future.

Michael has always been civic minded. When he was a Grade 10 student, he convinced his high school principal to replace “God Save the Queen” with “O Canada” during morning exercises, many years before “O Canada” became our national anthem. I think maybe he should stay around for our “O Canada” debates.

He is the author of six books, including Sex in the Snow, which is a deconstruction of Canadian social values. Yes, Senator Smith is raising his eyebrows — Sex in the Snow, yes. Fire and Ice compares the United States to Canada, and Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph Of Canadian Multiculturalism is my favourite. He has won many awards for Fire and Ice — the Donner Prize, the Literary Review of Canada, et cetera.

The best way for me to describe Michael to you is that he is curious and he is optimistic. In both, he exhibits an almost childlike curiosity for finding the truth but also the points of light. And he always keeps us on our toes. His next book explores the populist backlash and asks the question: Could it happen here?

I’m also very proud to know that Michael and his spouse, Thuy Nguyen, who is a child of the so-called boat people refugee movement to Canada, are proud sponsors of a Syrian refugee family.

Michael will receive his well-deserved Order of Canada tomorrow at Rideau Hall, and I’m sure we all join in congratulating him for his contributions to our country. Thank you.