A distinguished foreign visitor was on Parliament Hill on this date in 2014 to address a joint-session of Canada’s Parliament. French President François Hollande did so while on an official visit to Canada, the first by a President of his nation since the 1980s when another French leader, François Mitterrand, toured Canada.
Our Prime Minister, Stephen J. Harper, welcomed President Hollande to the Commons’ Chamber that historic day.
“Mr. President, compared to Europe, which is so much older, Canada may seem like a young country,” Canada’s 22nd Prime Minister said before inviting the French President to address MPs and Senators. “However, France and Canada's shared history began nearly five centuries ago, when Saint-Malo explorer Jacques Cartier arrived on our shores. He was the one who chose the name Canada for these lands, which were still unknown to Europeans at that time. Ever since, the great journey of the French language in North America has continued. I can assure you, Mr. President, that all Canadian francophones feel the same pride in and the same hope for their language, culture and institutions that your ancestors felt when they came here.”
You can read President Hollande’s speech at this link.caption id="attachment_1450869" align="alignleft" width="300"
President Hollande and Prime Minister Harper/captionArthur 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.