Today in Canada's Political History - May 21, 1968: Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau describes the role of Canadian youth in his Just Society

  • National Newswatch

The famed 1968 federal election was underway on this date in 1968, with rookie party leader and Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, at the helm of Canada’s Liberals. A great deal of excitement surrounded the former Minister of Justice that year and young people from coast-to-coast-to-coast were no exception. Trudeau was campaigning in Seaforth, Ontario on May 21, 1968. During an address to supporters, he praised the role youth were then playing in Canadian politics and public affairs. He also outlined what he saw was their duty in the years ahead.

“The fact that so many of the young people of Canada should be interested in politics is a good sign for the Canada of tomorrow, because in this world in which we live, in a world that is changing extremely rapidly, in a world where technology, cybernetics, and nuclear energy are the important things for a prosperous country, we can no longer rely on the great riches of this land,” Prime Minister Trudeau said. “And we can no longer rely on our natural resources, on our rich agricultural lands, to remain a wealthy country. We will have to rely on the young people of today who will have learned to master this change, and who will have learned to influence this technology.”

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.