History from the podium
Dr. Norman Bethune left his medical practice in Montreal in 1936 to join the Republican forces fighting the fascists under General Franco in Spain. There Dr. Bethune pioneered a portable blood transfusion unit that was used at or near the front and it saved thousands of lives. In 1937, he was asked by the Republicans... Continue Reading →
Edward Ahenakew was Anglican clergyman of Cree ancestry, born in 1885 on the Ahtahkakoop First Nation in central Saskatchewan. He spent his life doing missionary work on reserves, promoting the Cree language, working to improve education on reserves, and attempting to organize a national organization to represent Indigenous people. On June 16, 1920 he gave... Continue Reading →
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks about a mass shooting in Nova Scotia On Saturday night into Sunday morning of April 18-19, a gunman in Nova Scotia went on a rampage. It was the largest mass shooting in Canadian history and left 23 people dead, including a female RCMP constable and the perpetrator himself. He was... Continue Reading →
Normally this blog is devoted to Canadian speeches but on rare occasion there is an exception. This is one of those times. In a televised address on March 18, 2020 Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to Germans to follow reason and show discipline in the face of the Corona pandemic. Merkel has shown herself, once again,... Continue Reading →
Thomas Homer-Dixon is a professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. His research, writing and speaking is focused on threats to global security including economic instability, climate change, and energy scarcity. He believes that human society and ecological systems are under multiple stresses occurring at a rate that is too... Continue Reading →
Thérèse Casgrain was born into an affluent Québec family, but she relentlessly championed women’s equality. Her speech to the League for the Rights of Women in 1941 occurred one year after women in Québec won the right to vote. Each year for more than a decade, Casgrain and other women found a sympathetic member of... Continue Reading →
In January 1935 Prime Minister R. B. Bennett delivered a series of dramatic radio addresses that shifted from hard core conservatism to promoting state intervention.
Controversy between Ottawa and Alberta over oil is nothing new. In the 1970s there was a spike in international oil prices which enriched Alberta but drove inflation in Canada. Alberta feared what Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government would do in response. Premier Peter Lougheed outlined the issues as he saw them during an October 1980 speech... Continue Reading →
Louis Riel was hanged in Regina on November 16, 1885 but his trial occurred in July into August of that year. Riel led the Métis agitation at Red River that resulted in Manitoba’s becoming a province in 1871, but was forced into a lonely exile in the United States. In 1884, the Métis at Batoche asked Riel to help defend their rights against a government that ignored their requests. Riel returned, led a short-lived rebellion, was captured and tried for treason. Here is his speech to the jury in his own defence.
John A. Macdonald and his Tories won the first post-Confederation election in 1872. They promised to build a transcontinental railway and there was a nasty feud over the contract between rival entrepreneurs in Toronto and Montreal. Macdonald chose Hugh Allan’s Montreal group. In 1873, someone broke into the office of Allan’s lawyer and found a... Continue Reading →
Great Canadian Speeches 