Future Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie took to his feet in the new Dominion of Canada’s first Parliament on this date in 1867. Though Leader of the Opposition standing against the great Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston, Mackenzie rose to the occasion and ended his speech with a non-partisan and patriotic tone.
“Mr. Mackenzie concluded with an expression of the hope that the deliberations of this Legislature, whatever their effects on party politics, would result in building up this nationality, and that they might be able to adopt such measures as would promote the interests of the people of all portions of the Dominion. (Cheers),” a Hansard reporter noted.