MONTREAL — It was all quite hush hush when McGill University hosted a very royal visitor on Thursday.
Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne, briefly visited the campus to speak with students involved in international development work.
The only daughter and second child of the Queen and Prince Philip was in Montreal for a private, two-day working visit to promote the importance of investing in the development of emerging leaders.
As the president of Emerging Leaders Dialogues Canada, a charity that focuses on building leadership development programs, the Princess Royal is committed to helping foster international leadership development.
The ELD creates two-week programs where participants go into communities and workplaces to discuss challenges and solutions to global issues.
Her Royal Highness spoke to 30 university students who work in various disciplines, with some coming from economically disadvantaged communities in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda, including two refugees studying at McGill with assistance from World University Service Canada.
Students told the McGill Reporter that the Princess was “really down to earth,” saying she “really cared and knew about the issues.”
McGill’s Institute for the Study of International Development is working to build bridges between the university and the international development community, and has been collaborating with ELD on several projects and initiatives.
The royal visit to Montreal also included a supper hosted by the CEO of Power Corp, Paul Desmarais Jr., who said he believes ELD programs provide a unique opportunity for Canada’s emerging leaders to showcase Canadian values, ethical leadership styles and good governance.
“These are challenging times for all leaders and one of the keys to meeting these challenges is to strengthen the skill sets of those leaders coming up next,” Desmarais said in a statement.
“ELD Canada’s goal is for these future leaders to emerge from their experience with a stronger sense of interconnectedness that will enrich their lives, and also benefit their organizations and their communities.”
The next ELD dialogue, the Canada-Caribbean Emerging Leaders’ Dialogue, will take place in October 2015.
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