Statement made on 10 March 2010 by Senator Art Eggleton
Hon. Art Eggleton:
Honourable senators, I rise today to pay tribute to David Pecaut who passed away from cancer on December 14, 2009.
David was an inspired and visionary leader from my home city of Toronto. Originally from Sioux City, Iowa, he moved to Toronto in the 1980s and embraced the city like it was his own. He worked tirelessly to improve the city he loved.
From the 1990s onward, David was a managing partner of the Boston Consulting Group, but always found time for community organizations and events. He sat on boards or created several civic organizations including the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, the Toronto Region Research Alliance, the Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force, Career Edge and the Prime Minister's External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities.
Of all his big ideas and achievements, perhaps the most inspiring were the creation of the Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, called Luminato, and the Toronto City Summit Alliance.
For a 10-day celebration of the arts each June, the Luminato festival infuses Toronto's stages, streets and public places with theatre, dance, music, film, literature, visual arts and design. This incredible festival has helped reinvent Toronto after its 2003 devastation by SARS. It has brought back more than one million visitors in only three years. As his wife Helen Burstyn pointed out: ``It was the most ambitious, the most complex, the most intellectually demanding and satisfying . . . the most David.'' For his vision in creating Luminato, Pecaut and his co-founder Tony Gagliano were jointly named Canadians of the Year in 2008 by the Canadian Club.
David was also the pivotal figure in the establishment of the Toronto City Summit Alliance. As volunteer chair, he built the alliance into a dynamic civic force that brings together leaders from business, civil society, government, labour and academia. Under his leadership, this coalition has worked to create collective solutions to persistent poverty, immigrant access to the labour market, diversifying leadership and other social and economic challenges facing the Toronto region.
David has left us an enormous legacy and his work will live on in the many people and organizations that he touched. For his lifetime of distinguished service to his community, David was named a member of the Order of Canada in December.
The Toronto region will miss his passion and perseverance. It owes him much gratitude for helping make Toronto one of the best cities in the world.