History from the podium
Tommy Douglas was one of Canada’s great political orators. He first honed his technique as a university student in Brandon participating in debating clubs and drama. He became an ordained minister and perfected his craft from the pulpit before going on to become a Member of Parliament and then Saskatchewan’s premier for 17 years, and... Continue Reading →
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland was named “diplomat of the year” at a forum hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based Foreign Policy magazine in June 2018. In her acceptance speech, Freeland talked about both the strengths of democratic societies and the threats to them. She also defended a globalized, free-trade order against the protectionist measures being taken... Continue Reading →
U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium and is threatening to do the same on automobiles. He has attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as weak, dishonest and worse. Back in the 1880s, Professor Goldwin Smith of Toronto acted as a self-appointed proponent of Canada's full commercial and political union with the... Continue Reading →
Young Wilfrid Laurier was a rising political star in Quebec in the 1870s but the Catholic church was hostile to liberals, associating them with the revolutions that had occurred in nineteenth century Europe. Some in the church even contemplated setting up a Catholic political party. Laurier took them on with a speech delivered to a... Continue Reading →
In Speeches That Changed Canada author and former MP Dennis Gruending has created a book that will be of interest to anyone who loves Canadian history, politics, literature and rhetoric. The book, released in April 2018 by Fitzhenry and Whiteside, will also be useful as a source and guide for teachers and students, and for... Continue Reading →
While this website highlights Canadian speeches and rhetoric, this posting commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of history’s great orators, who was murdered fifty years ago, on April 4, 1968. King was the son of an American Baptist minister and he, too, became a minister in Montgomery, Alabama. Inspired by Scripture and Mahatma Gandhi,... Continue Reading →
In June 1990, the Meech Lake Accord failed when Aboriginal leader and Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper refused to give the necessary unanimous consent for his province to approve. The Assembly of First Nations also opposed the accord not least because it continued to focus upon the French and English as Canada’s founding nations. AFN chief... Continue Reading →
Until recently there were very few anthologies of Canadian speeches. There existed collections by this or that prime minister but there was a dearth of more inclusive anthologies such as existed in the U.S., Great Britain and even Australia. That has begun to change. My book, Great Canadian Speeches, published in 2004, was one of... Continue Reading →
Dorion led the Parti Rouge (Liberals) in the 1850s and he had served with George Brown in a short-lived government. Early in 1865 representatives from the United Province of Canada (today’s Quebec and Ontario) met to decide if they would proceed with a federation that had been negotiated to include the English colonies in Atlantic Canada.... Continue Reading →
