History from the podium
Ottawa lawyer and federal environment minister Catherine McKenna was a lead negotiator for Canada toward the 2015 Paris Agreement. It was signed by 195 countries and committed them to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. McKenna spoke to the agreement in the House of Commons in October 2016. She emphasized the need to place a price on carbon.
Judge Murray Sinclair led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which investigated the history of Canada’s residential schools, which separated Indigenous children from their families. Sinclair's report issued ninety-four calls to action to the federal government, churches and other institutions in Canada. Sinclair made the following speech in Ottawa upon the release of the TRC interim report in June 2015.
In his first speech in the House of Commons in 1968, NDP NP Broadbent said that Canada’s development of the welfare state had stalled, and he argued there was no true democracy without economic equality.
Canada's prime minister Mark Carney told an audience at the World Economic Forum that the rules-based international order is dead. That comment is quite something, coming from an international banker. Carney says that the great powers have ushered in a "brutal reality" where they are not subject to any constraints. To survive, middle powers, including Canada, must cooperate in a shifting set of coalitions based on common values and interests.
Early in the 20th century, Canada wanted to attract immigrants as workers and consumers. But the country did not want Asians as permanent residents, even though their labour was needed. The federal government passed laws to prevent the citizenship of Chinese and South Asians, and to prevent Asian women and wives from coming to Canada. In January 1912, Dr. Sundar Singh spoke to the Empire Club in Toronto. He challenged the law and prevailing attitudes against Sikhs.
In 1992, the Canadian, U.S., and Mexican governments were negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canadian civil society groups and many unions were opposed. They said the trade agreement would she jobs and undermine Canadian sovereignty. Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians presented those arguments to a House of Commons committee.
Free trade with the U.S. has long been an issue in Canadian politics. When he ran for leader of the Progressive Conservatives in 1983, Brian Mulroney vigorously opposed any talk of free trade. But when he was later elected in 1984, he became an enthusiastic advocate. He gave this speech to a Chamber of Commerce gathering in Montreal in 1987.
Free trade, or reciprocity, with the U.S., was the big issue in Canada's federal election campaign in 1891. The Liberal-Reform Party led by Wilfrid Laurier was for it, and the Conservatives, led by their aging leader Sir John A. Macdonald, were opposed. Macdonald gave a famous speech saying no to what he said would result in Canada's being absorbed by the U.S. He won the election.
Donald Trump, the U.S. president, has placed a twenty-five per cent tariff on all Canadian goods. As promised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada will respond by placing an equal tariff on select imports from the U.S. Here is Trudeau's speech making that announcement.
George-Étienne Cartier, born into a Quebec family, came to believe that the rights and culture of the French could best be protected within a Canadian federation. He gave this speech in Montreal in October 1866.
