Arguably, 2017 has been a defining year in Canada-US relations. At the centre of today's great policy debates, from the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the softwood lumber pact, has been Canada's ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton (BA'71).

Before he was appointed to the country's top diplomatic post in May 2016, MacNaughton was regarded as one of the kingmakers of Canadian politics, a reputation he earned as strategist for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. His trajectory into the political stratosphere began with a split-second decision he made as a student at UNB.

"There was a young woman in my political science class who I was interested in," he says. "So, I asked her what her plans were for the weekend and she said she was going to Halifax to a Liberal convention. I said, 'Funny, I'm going to the same thing!'"

While at the convention, MacNaughton made another bold move. "Neither of the two people who were running to be president [of the Atlantic Provinces Student Liberal Association] were very popular," he says. "So, late into the evening, I joined the race and ended up winning. It seemed like a good idea at the time and it turned out to have changed the path of my life."

"We have to think about where the economy is going, not where it's been."

MacNaughton describes the political atmosphere of UNB in the late 1960s as, "pretty intense. It wasn't Liberal, Conservative, NDP, it was all around student activism." He says that while some students travelled to Washington, DC, to protest the Vietnam War, one of his first political acts was to convince UNB's administration to de-list Fredericton landlords who were abusive or unfair to students.

MacNaughton's position as president of the Atlantic Provinces Student Liberal Association led him to a summer job working for [then-federal minister] Don Jamieson and an offer of full-time employment.

"My father wanted me to go to business school, but the prospect of making $10,000 a year as a political assistant was way too attractive for me to go back to university. So, I went to Ottawa and stayed."

When his first child was born, MacNaughton decided he needed more control over his time, so he borrowed $20,000 and started his own business. "It was me and half a secretary and things developed after that," he says. "When I look back on it now, it was kind of a crazy idea, but it did work out."

MacNaughton says his rise to Canadian ambassador last year was more by accident than by design.

"Sometimes I feel like the dog that is chasing the car and catches it and I say, 'what do I do now?' It's obviously an enormous privilege and honour to represent your country, and to do it in this place, at this time is pretty special."

MacNaughton turned to longtime friend – former Canadian ambassador to the US and former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna (LLB'74, LLD'88) – for advice on how to approach his new role and he credits the education and experience he gained at UNB as good preparation for a life of public service.

"It was much smaller and a much more intimate experience than going to a big university," he says, "You got to know the profs. I made some good friends and I travelled around the Maritimes, which for me was really good, because I got to see another part of the country."

He says his favourite course was a graduate seminar in history. "There were six of us in the class and the professor said early on, 'We're going to have the seminar at the Riverview Arms and everyone needs to come prepared, because if I find anyone who hasn't done the reading we're going back to the classroom.' You've never seen such peer pressure. I learned a lot about creating positive incentives."

That perspective on win-win negotiation has been an asset in his role as ambassador. Asked about two of the biggest files in his portfolio – the impasse over duties on Canadian softwood lumber and NAFTA negotiations – MacNaughton is cautiously optimistic.

"We're getting close with softwood lumber," he says. "But, we're not there yet. US Secretary [Wilbur] Ross has really tried hard to work with us to get a deal but, unfortunately they have to get their industry to sign off on it, and that's proving to be a bit difficult. But I'm optimistic. I'd like to get it done before we get to the crunch on NAFTA."

On free trade, MacNaughton says that progress is being made. "What everybody's agreed on is that we're going to try to get this whole [NAFTA] thing done before the end of the year. I expect that there will be some drama before this is all over, but I do think at the end of the day, it's going to work out."

MacNaughton is bullish on the capacity of universities, such as UNB, to transform the economy on both sides of the border.

"I often use the phrase from that great philosopher Walter Gretzky, who said, 'Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.' We are going through the most rapid transformation since the industrial revolution, and the difference is it's happening in a much more compact amount of time. So, we have to be thinking about where the economy is going, not where it's been."

When asked for his thoughts on New Brunswick's role in the country's overall prosperity, he says, "Technology and the internet are changing where people are looking at establishing businesses. This creates a huge amount of opportunity for places like New Brunswick," pointing out that there is growing interest in this region among tech companies on the Eastern seaboard of the United States.

He points to UNB's Canadian Institute of Cybersecurity as an example of how the university is driving entrepreneurship and economic development in the province of New Brunswick.

"Cybersecurity is becoming one of the big issues that is discussed, whether it be in terms of military threats, the [electrical] grid, or infrastructure. That's what everybody's talking about, and if you'd have asked somebody 15 years ago if Fredericton was going to be a leader [in cybersecurity], they'd have said 'you're crazy.'"

MacNaughton has another reason to be optimistic: he sees an important parallel between the current generation of university students and his own. Both want to make a difference in society.

"When I was at UNB, there was a lot of excitement around public policy. We'd come out of the 1960s, when people thought they could change the world. What I see happening now, with millennials, is a renewed interest in doing something to contribute to society, and I think that's a really good thing. If everybody just says 'well that's somebody else's job' or you're cynical about politics or government, then we're not going to make it a better world."

This story was the cover feature in the Fall 2017 issue of Alumni News magazine.