History from the podium
Judy LaMarsh was minister of National Health and Welfare in the Liberal government of Lester Pearson. One of her main tasks was to devise the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and to guide its legislation through a minority parliament. On 18 July 1963, she introduced a CPP resolution for debate in the House of Commons.
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.
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.
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.
