History from the podium
On September 11, 2001 terrorists crashed two hijacked jetliners into the twin World Trade Center Towers in New York City. On September 17, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was the first of many MPs to speak in the Canadian House of Commons to a motion of condolence to the families of victims and to the American people.
John Diefenbaker, Canada’s 13th prime minister died this month in 1979. He was one of Canada’s finest political orators and election campaigners. He became leader of the Progressive Conservatives in 1956, and six months later the governing Liberals called an election. A young economist named Merril Menzies sent Diefenbaker a series of memos proposing a... Continue Reading →
Wilfrid Laurier was campaigning for reelection when he made the following speech before a packed house in Toronto’s Massey Hall on 14 October 1904. The speech, while not one of his best, was vintage Laurier -- suave, playing to the audience, and discreetly undermining his political opponents. Near its end, he provided his grand vision... 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 →
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.
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 →
John Turner (left) debates Brian Mulroney on free trade, 1988 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 year by attacking Turner for making... 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 →
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 →
On a cold February day 1965, Canada’s new maple leaf flag rose above the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill for the first time. The so-called Great Flag Debate had been long and acrimonious. Now, Prime Minister Lester Pearson made a brief speech. His political adversary John Diefenbaker, seated nearby, used a handkerchief to dab a tear from his eye.
Great Canadian Speeches 