The speech was vintage Macdonald; funny, partisan and so much more. He was repeatedly interrupted by cheers as he extolled the positive effects on his National Policy before his enthusiastic audience.

“I have carried out the policy which I believed now, was for the interest of the country. (loud cheers) I have carried out that policy, and the country has sustained me,” Canada’s first Prime Minister thundered. “And at the end of five years the manufacturers will have generated so much capital, while the workingmen, the skilled and unskilled labor that surround those varied industries, will have become so powerful, the capitalists will be linked together in associations, and workingmen will be bound together in trades unions, and they will fight the battle together. (loud cheers) Capital and labor will go hand in hand, and they will put down all attempts to make this country what it was before, a mere agricultural country, from which all skilled labor went to the United States to find employment, and that skilled labor will remain in the country. ("hear, hear")

It truly was a speech for the ages. And reading it today it will surprise no one that Sir John A. and his party received their third majority mandate when the ballots were counted a few days later.

You can read Macdonald’s speech at this link: https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/primeministers/h4-4035-e.html