History from the podium
Adrienne Clarkson had a successful career in broadcasting and diplomacy prior to being appointed as Canada's governor general in 1999. She served in the role until 2005. Her speeches were elegantly written and skilfully delivered. In her installation speech, she talked about Canada, her family's history and her childhood experience as an immigrant from Hong... Continue Reading →
Canada's political leaders are now holding debates leading up to the October 2019 federal election. However, the mother of all election debates occurred in 1988 over free trade between Canada and the US. Brian Mulroney had defeated John Turner and the Liberals in the 1984 election. Mulroney scored a coup in the televised debate that... Continue Reading →
James Shaver Woodsworth had an almost prophetic status among members of his CCF caucus and party. Woodsworth was also a pacifist. When Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and it became obvious that Canada would likely soon be at war, the caucus held a wrenching internal discussion in which most members disagreed with Woodsworth,... Continue Reading →
After Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933, he rearmed Germany and pursued an aggressive foreign policy which saw him annex both Austria and then the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia in 1938. Initially, Canada’s Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King supported British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his decision to sacrifice Czechoslovakia by appeasing Hitler. But... Continue Reading →
The British were embarrassed by a rebellion against their colonial administration in Lower Canada (now Quebec) in 1837. Lord Durham was sent to Canada to study the situation and he decided assimilation of the French Canadians was the best solution. He proposed a single government for Upper and Lower Canada, which would have only English... Continue Reading →
I belong to a group called the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians, and they have a publication called Beyond the Hill. Their current issue carries an interview with me by Wade Morris about my recent book Speeches That Changed Canada. He asks not only about the book and the political speeches contained within it, but... Continue Reading →
Canadians celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21 and Canada Day ten days later. The first national observance of Dominion Day, as it was known then, occurred on July 1, 1927, which was the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation in 1867. The centrepiece in Ottawa was a radio address by Prime Minister Mackenzie King. To... Continue Reading →
This site is devoted mainly to Canadian speeches. This is not one of them, but it is the most inspiring speech by a politician that I have heard in a long while. On March 15, an Australian man walked into the Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand and began shooting with semi-automatic rifle. In that... Continue Reading →
George Brown was the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe and leader of the Reform Party. Brown was a fierce opponent of John A Macdonald and the Conservatives and he advocated free trade and representation by population. Brown also believed that any close union with Lower Canada (Quebec) was an obstacle to the future... Continue Reading →
