The Governor General’s final day in Vietnam took him from the urban bustle of Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho in the south. From there the motorcade threaded for two hours through one of Vietnam’s poorest areas, along narrow, waste-strewn roads lined with small shops, rice paddies and muddy canals.

Lors de sa troisème journée au Vietnam, le gouverneur général s’est rendu à Ho Chi Minh-Ville où il a notamment livré un discours aux étudiants et le corps professoral de l’Université de l’Industrie.

La délégation canadienne à l’Université des sciences sociales et humaines à Hanoi (le 17 novembre 2011).

The decision that Governor General David Johnston’s first state visit would take him to Asia makes good sense on a number of levels. First, Asia’s economic growth continues to far outstrip the pace of economic activity in the rest of the world. But its cultural and diplomatic importance is also rising rapidly, making our connection to the region even more valuable as Canada positions itself in global affairs.

Second, Canada boasts a large and growing Asian diaspora. Already, Chinese is the third most widely spoken language in our country and Asian Canadians maintain deep ties of family, culture and commerce with the region. Our European heritage has shaped who we are as Canadians since the first settlers arrived to the present day, but the face of Canada is literally changing as new Canadians from other parts of the world increase their role in our national life.

Ottawa, November 10 - It’s deeply disappointing that the U.S. State Department decided today to stall a decision on the Keystone XL Pipeline, supposedly because new route options, particularly in Nebraska, need to be investigated. There are currently almost 21,000 miles of pipelines crossing Nebraska already - 3,000 miles of which carry crude oil. Many of these pipelines are within areas overlying the Ogallala Aquifer.

TransCanada has worked with the State Department for the past three years to ensure Keystone XL would be the safest oil pipeline ever built, and the State Department’s own study, released just three months ago, showed that the environmental impacts would be manageable, with alternative routes having stronger environmental consequences for the environment. What else needs to be studied?