On the surface, one might think there would not be much for Pierre Trudeau to emulate in Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first and founding Prime Minister. But if you take a closer look, you’ll find that Mr. Trudeau has frequently turned to Macdonald for inspiration in some of his most important speeches. In fact, when a senior Tory told Mr. Trudeau privately that he felt the long-time Liberal PM was a Conservative at heart, Trudeau agreed, with one caveat. “I am,” he told Tom Van Dusen, “a John A. Macdonald Conservative!”
So, it was on this date in 1969 that Prime Minister Trudeau delivered his famous address at the Washington Press Club, pointing out famously that living next door to America “is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
But earlier in the speech, in a passage that is less well-known, Mr. Trudeau sought inspiration from John A., reminding his American audience that the Father of Canadian Confederation had a plan in his pocket should war ever break out between our two nations. In a passage recited by Mr. Trudeau that day in Washington, Macdonald wrote:
Years later, in fighting for Francophone rights in Manitoba in 1983, Mr Trudeau again used a quote from Sir John A. to help make his case during an address to the Commons. “I have no accord,” Trudeau, quoting Macdonald from an 1890 House debate, “with the desire expressed in some quarters that by any mode whatever there should be an attempt made to oppress the one language or to render it inferior to the other. I believe that it would be impossible if it were tried, and it would be foolish and wicked if it were possible.” Trudeau then ended with a rhetorical flourish. “So spake Sir John A. Macdonald,” he said to cheers from all sides of the House.
It was a remarkable moment in our Parliamentary history. Two Prime Ministers united in a common cause; Canada itself.
“War will come some day between England and the United States, and India can do us yeoman service by sending an army of Sikhs, Ghurkas, etc., etc., across the Pacific to San Francisco and holding that beautiful and unusual city and the surrounding California as security for Montreal and Canada.”
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.