Canada’s first (and still only) female Prime Minister crisscrossed the nation on this date in 1993, taking part in celebrations of our national day (which I continue to call Dominion Day). She started the day at Signal Hill in Newfoundland, spoke to thousands at noon on Parliament Hill, and then ended the day in her home province of British Columbia.
In her remarks in Ottawa, Campbell invoked Canada’s Father of Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston.
“We celebrate today the birth of our country; we affirm today our love of country and our faith in its future,” said. “We are reminded today that our country has been passed into our keeping, and is kept in the hearts and minds of our people. We are also mindful of how far we have travelled together, and how much we have yet to accomplish together.
Canada's first Prime Minister sought, unsuccessfully, to give women the vote. Today, a century after his passing, a woman stands before you as Prime Minister of Canada. Canada's first Prime Minister also sought, successfully, to bring British Columbia into Confederation. Today, I stand before you as Canada's first Prime Minister born and raised in British Columbia”.
“Our first Prime Minister saw a country that would be known for its generosity of spirit,” she continued. “And so it is. He saw a country that spanned a continent between the oceans. And so it does. From Signal Hill in Newfoundland, where I saw Canada Day begin, here in the Capital and across the river in Hull, to Vancouver, where I will be tonight, this day and this country cover six of the world's 24 time zones, the second largest country on earth. Sir John A. Macdonald's vision became his legacy, entrusted to each of his successors as Prime Minister and to all of us as Canadians.”
Hours later, at home in Vancouver, Prime Minister Campbell concluded her Canada Day journey with these words.
“Today is not a day for long speeches,” she said. “It is a day of celebration and solidarity, a day to express our pride in our past and our faith in our future. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your warm welcome and your kind encouragement. It feels so good to be back in Vancouver. And it feels especially good, this evening, to say, Happy birthday Canada! Bonne fête Canada!”
Happy Dominion-Canada Day 2025 from Art’s History!
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.