
President George W. Bush, President George H. Bush, President William Jefferson Clinton, President Gerald Ford, and Me - what do we all have in common?
We are all members of an elite club - not just leaders of the free world but honorary leaders of the Presidents Cup - that most prestigious international golf tournament. The burden of history rested on my broad shoulders as I officially opened the competition at the Royal Montreal Golf Club on Wednesday. I thought of all the great Presidents who had gone before me and it brought tears to my eyes.
It is a life-long dream come true to be a member of the elect Presidents club. My name will be forever linked with those other Commanders-in-Chief and etched in history as the first ever Canadian head of state to host the Presidents Cup. Not the Prime Ministers Cup or the First Ministers Cup or even the President's Cup. That's Presidents plural Cup, and now I am one of them.
I came home wearing my Presidents Cup hat and I've been walking on air and feeling extremely presidential ever since. Sandra asked me if I'd cut my hair, Laureen thought I'd lost some weight and Ben wondered if I was taller. It was just the Presidential posture, the Chief Executive aura.
In fact, that is what this country really needs - a President. Being the first minister among many degrades the head of state. You sound like just another civil servant not the supreme executive authority who deals with life and death issues every day. Liberal Quasimodo may be happy as a first minister herding his sheep by consensus but I want to lead, I was born to lead. And that's what el Presidente Steve will do.