Our country was going to be called “Kingdom of Canada” instead of Dominion, but the British, fearing it would provoke the Americans, unilaterally changed it. The greatest thing we can do to celebrate our country is to know more about it. And certainly learning about Canada and celebrating it need
Continue readingTag: Macdonald
The Scott Ross: Our First Canada Day
Our country was going to be called “Kingdom of Canada” instead of Dominion, but the British, fearing it would provoke the Americans, unilaterally changed it.
The greatest thing we can do to celebrate our country is to know more about it. And certainly learning about Canada and celebrating it need not be separate; below are a few quotes made on our first Canada Day July 1st 1867:
“Died! Last night at twelve o’clock, the free and enlightened Province of Nova Scotia.”- The Halifax Morning Chronicle, a newspaper that thought confederation would hurt Nova Scotia.
“With the first dawn of this gladsome midsummer morn, we hail the birthday of a new nationality.”- George Brown, a father of confederation
“This new Dominion of ours came into existence on the 1st, and the very newspapers look hot and tired with the weight of announcements and of cabinet lists. Here–in this house–the atmosphere is so awfully political that sometimes I think the very flies hold Parliament on the kitchen tablecloths.”- From the diary of Lady Agnes Macdonald, the wife of our first Prime Minister.
“La seule voie nous soit offerte pour arriver à l’independance politique.”- La Minerve, a newspaper in Quebec on the province being a part of a new Canada. (Rough translation: “The only way offered to us to achieve political independence.”)
And lastly a favourite quote of George-Étienne Cartier, another father of confederation, made a few years before our first Canada Day:
“Now, when we are united together, if union is attained, we shall form a political nationality with which neither the national origin, nor the religion of any individual, will interfere…. In our own Federation we will have Catholic and Protestant, English, French, Irish and Scotch, and each by his efforts and his success will increase the prosperity and glory of the new Confederacy….We are of different races, not for the purpose of warring against each other, but in order to compete and emulate for the general welfare.”
This material was from Richard Gwyn’s excellent book, John A, The Man Who Made Us.
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Our First Canada Day
Our country was going to be called “Kingdom of Canada” instead of Dominion, but the British, fearing it would provoke the Americans, unilaterally changed it. The greatest thing we can do to celebrate our country is to know more about it. And certainly learning about Canada and celebrating it need
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Day John A. Macdonald Died
If there was no John A. Macdonald, there would be no Canada. Our most important founding father and first Prime Minister died 122 years ago today. Canadians of all political persuasions should take a moment and remember John A. Macdonald because they share so much in common with the man
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Day John A. Macdonald Died
If there was no John A. Macdonald, there would be no Canada.Our most important Father of Confederation and first Prime Minister died 122 years ago today. Canadians of all political persuasions should take a moment and remember John A. Macdonald, not on…
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Day John A. Macdonald Died
If there was no John A. Macdonald, there would be no Canada. Our most important Father of Confederation and first Prime Minister died 122 years ago today. Canadians of all political persuasions should take a moment and remember John A. Macdonald, not only because he was responsible for our nation,
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Culloden and the Family Tree, 267 Years Later
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Continue readingThe Scott Ross: A Toast For Canada
After the Quebec Conference, at a gala dinner hosted by George-Etienne Cartier, Canada’s Fathers of Confederation held a toast; it was offered as encouragement to face the difficulties still before them in forming a nation, but the verse stands today as encouragement for us to face the difficulties in now
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PETA should use a new argument against animal cruelty, Luka Magnotta. Luka Magnotta, the accused killer who dismembered a man and sent body parts in the mail across Canada, shares something in common with most psychopaths, animal cruelty. In 1963 forensic psychiatrist J.M. Macdonald wrote a paper published in the
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