Video of Rick Mercer’s Convocation Address at McMaster Humanities Convocation 2010

Today was the McMaster Humanities Convocation, held as usual at the Hamilton Place auditorium. What a great afternoon!

I love our students. They are such impressive people and they were at their best today. Elegantly dressed, well-spoken, surrounded by families who love them. It was a pleasure to watch them file in.

I love our students. They impress me. They inspire me. The give me a feeling of security that the future is safe in their thoughtful hands.

I am so very proud of them.

In fact, I got a privileged view of their procession, since the construction on Main St almost made me late. As I ran in I bumped into Philip Savage, my co-director of COMM-Lab who had also suffered for the traffic.

A couple of our students smiled pretty radiantly at us as we hurried, all worried, to toss on our robes. We finally got them on and then ran to get in line. The professors’ procession entered soberly and took their place and we listened as President Peter George asked Chancellor Linton Red Wilson to confer the degree of doctorate of arts, honoris causa to the President of Beijing Language and Culture University. He gave an eloquent speech. After that it was Rick Mercer’s turn. And he delivered an excellent, inspiring and patriotic speech. You can watch it here, recorded by Daryl Spong, one of our communication studies and multimedia graduates:


Peter George gave an emotional last speech as President. He spoke of how windows of opportunity open rarely in one’s life and how important it is to leap through them when they do open. He mentioned that he felt a window opening for himself and that he had the same feeling that he had 45 years ago when he started at McMaster. It was both an inspiring and nostalgic speech. Hopeful and wistful.

As you can probably tell, it was a special afternoon. I wish all of our grads the absolute best of everything as they embark on the next stages of their lives.

I hope they know that they always have a group of friends and an extended family in the faculty of the Department of Communication Studies & Multimedia at McMaster University.

My door is always open, and I am always up for cup of coffee and an hour spent in nostalgic reminiscence or hopeful planning.

Did I mention that I love our students? 🙂

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