Today in Canada’s Political History: PM Harper celebrates George-Étienne Cartier bicentennial

Canada’s 22nd Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Stephen J. Harper, was in Quebec City on this date to celebrate Quebec’s leading Father of Confederation Sir George-Étienne Cartier on what would have been the great man’s 200thbirthday. “Confederation did not become the tomb of the French language and culture in America, thanks in particular to Cartier,” Harper said. “On the contrary, it enabled the language, culture and institutions of Quebec society to be preserved, to grow and to be affirmed on this continent and throughout the world.” You can read PM Harper’s entire speech in tribute of George-Étienne Cartier below. Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper: I always have a special feeling when I come back to Québec City. I feel there's a little magic in the air. You sometimes hear about the mystery of Québec City, but there's nothing really mysterious in the relationship that unites Québec City and all Canadians. As I've said before, most Canadians have two cities in their hearts. Their hometown, and Québec City. There were already Canadians here over 400 years ago. It's a reality that we need to recognize, respect, and reinforce. Just a stone's throw away, beside here on the Côte de la Fabrique, is a piece of sacred ground in Canadian history, in Montmorency Park. That's the site of the statue of an illustrious Quebecer and a great Canadian, George-Étienne Cartier, the bicentenary of whose birth we are celebrating this year. When that monument was unveiled in 1920, Premier Taschereau noted that it was located, and I quote: "in Old Québec City, which is like the heart of Canada." A few metres from here, Louis Hébert and his family became the first Canadian settlers, nearly four centuries ago. This is also where one of the first two Canadian parliaments sat, that of Lower Canada, over two centuries ago, at the same time as that of Upper Canada.One of the first acts of that parliament was to entrench the use of French in its proceedings. Thus, with Champlain, the founder of Québec City, Canada was born in French, and our first parliamentary democracy was born in French, in the parliament of Lower Canada. This place also housed the parliament of the government of the Union on two occasions before Confederation. So, we are united here today around the cradle of Canadian democracy. It is naturally a source of great pride in our past, but it must also be the inspiration of as great a confidence in our future.Cartier, more than any other, understood 150 years ago that we must remember where we come from before we can imagine where we can go. Cartier participated, on the very site of the building we are in today, in the last preparatory conference for Confederation, in October 1864. The first of the 72 Québec City resolutions adopted at the conference faithfully reflects his thinking. It reads as follows: "The best interests and present and future prosperity of British North America will be promoted by a Federal Union under the Crown of Great Britain, provided such Union can be affected on principles just to the several Provinces." Cartier devoted most of his political career to achieving those just principles.Indeed, there would probably have been no Canadian federation if Cartier had not fought so hard to have the rights and aspirations of Quebecers and Francophones respected within Canada. Prime Minister Arthur Meighen said about Cartier, when the monument in Montmorency Park was unveiled, and I quote, “He was a political pioneer. He was one of the founders of Canada as we have it now. “He cleared the forests and levelled the cliffs, and got together the timbers for our Canadian home.” Indeed, our first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald, who is often cited as the founder of our Dominion, himself said after Cartier’s death, “but for him, Confederation could not have been carried.” And that Confederation, notwithstanding the relative youth of this country, is now one of the longest, unbroken arrangements of governance in the world. Cartier himself said in the Legislative Assembly in 1865: "Some individuals have supposed that Confederation would not work, on account of the differences of race and religion. Those who share that opinion are in error. On the contrary, it is on account of the variety of races and local interests that the Federal system ought to be resorted to, and would be found to work well." He was right. For 147 years, our federal system has worked well. Not perfectly, to be sure: the Confederation is governed by human beings, not angels. But we need only look around us to see that the Fathers of Confederation worked well. Québec City is still the beating heart of the North American Francophonie. Thanks to our participation in the global Francophonie, our country's Francophone outreach touches all continents.It is thanks to Canada, in particular another Conservative government, that the Francophonie Summit saw the light of the day. And Canada is still one of the pillars of that international organization, which now comprises over 70 States. Cartier saw big, and he saw far. He was a visionary and a builder. But even he could never have foreseen that Canada's Francophones would one day bear the torch of the French language and culture so high and so far. Safeguarding the success of our Canada required the faith, solidarity and courage of generations of Francophones, who have passed on pride and hope to their families and their communities. It is here, in Québec City, that Canada was first conceived of and built by Louis Hébert and his descendants.At that time, one could have no more prestigious title that to be able to say: "I am a Canadian." It is a title that is envied worldwide today. Confederation did not become the tomb of the French language and culture in America, thanks in particular to Cartier. On the contrary, it enabled the language, culture and institutions of Quebec society to be preserved, to grow and to be affirmed on this continent and throughout the world. French is virtually no longer spoken in New England, where some one million Quebec Francophones emigrated to between 1840 and 1930. But the use of French continues to grow in Canada. In 1871, the date of the first Canadian census, there were 1.2 million Francophones in the new Canadian federation. According to the most recent census, in 2011, over 7.2 million Canadians had French as their mother tongue. Between 2006 and 2011, the number of Francophones in Canada increased by nearly 328 000. The 2011 census also showed that close to 10 million people are able to conduct a conversation in French compared with less than 9.6 million just five years earlier. In Canada, language is not a barrier between provinces, it is a bridge between peoples here – between peoples within Canada – and between ourselves and the rest of the world. Right here, in Québec City in December 2005, as Leader of the Opposition, I clearly set out my party's policy. As I said then: "We will recognize the autonomy of the provinces and the special cultural and institutional responsibilities of the Government of Quebec. We will respect the federal and provincial areas of responsibility as defined in the Canadian Constitution." That is the commitment I made to Quebecers on behalf of my party nearly ten years ago. And our Government has followed the path of openness and fairness ever since we were elected. caption id="attachment_633561" align="alignnone" width="400" Sir George-Étienne Cartier/caption As Cartier would no doubt have wanted, our Government recognized that the Québecois form a nation within a united Canada. We enabled Quebec to participate fully in UNESCO, the esteemed United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. We hold true to the spirit and the letter of Confederation in respecting provincial jurisdictions, because the autonomy of the provinces is a founding principle of Canada and because it is also a Conservative principle.While others predicted the greatest misfortunes for Francophones and Quebecers if they joined the nascent Canada, that is the principle that united the Blues around Cartier. I am very proud to be one of the Cartier's political heirs, and as long as I am Prime Minister of Canada, we will continue on the path he blazed 150 years ago at the Québec City Conference. Does that mean that all the provinces and territories will instantly always get whatever they want? Of course not. Confederation has also succeeded because the partners of the federation have not only defended their own special interests. They have also had the wisdom to work together to ensure the prosperity and security of all Canadians. Today, thanks to that cooperation and to our economic action plan, Canada is the success story of all industrialized countries. We have gone through and are continuing to go through the effects of an unprecedented global economic crisis.We are doing so thanks to the most stable banking system in the world and to policies of employment support, budgetary accountability, tax reductions, and openness to foreign markets through free-trade agreements. That success now builds on the immense heritage that Cartier left us as a Canadian citizen.For Cartier was certainly a visionary, but he was not a dreamer. He profoundly reformed the systems of law, education and municipalities in Quebec. And he eventually gave birth to the province of Quebec as we know it today. But his gaze took in the whole continent. He saw the Union of the provinces and the construction of a transcontinental railway as powerful instruments for economic development.He sustainably organized Canada's militia to defend our borders and safeguard our sovereignty in a very difficult era. Friends, in three years, when we celebrate together the 150th anniversary of Confederation, we will be able to proudly recall once more the example of George-Étienne Cartier, a son of Quebec, a Father of Canada. I also want to send out anniversary congratulations to my friend Bob Rae. On this date in 1990 he made history, becoming the first-ever NDP Premier of Ontario. Happy anniversary Bob! 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.