“Anyone who has had the honour of serving as prime minister knows that the two standards against whom everyone else will always be judged were Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier,” the 16th PM said. “They embodied the young country as well as leading it. Each in his way symbolized how essential it is in a large and diverse society to reach out to others, to embrace them and to respect the differences which make them distinct… At a time when Canadians are thinking so seriously about our future, our future as a comprehensive, cohesive and identifiable national community in a world transformed by technology and our future as individuals in a world where terrorists kill people simply for going to work, it is useful for us to reflect on our past and on the extraordinary individuals who faced down risk, faced down fear and faced down disappointment to define a Canadian nation and identity.

Clark also decried the fact that Canada does a terrible job of honouring our history and those past leaders who made it.

“We Canadians do not spend enough time celebrating our origins,” he said. “Not enough Canadian history is taught in our schools. We do not know enough of our past. The designation of these days will give all Canadians an opportunity to pause and consider our beginnings as a country and the difficulties faced in the early days of keeping it together.”

In the end, the bill was approved and January 11, Macdonald’s birthday, and November 20, Laurier’s birthday, are enshrined as special days of honour on the Canadian calendar. In his recent years, sadly, an era where some retroactively apply today’s standards on past leaders, these days are most often ignored by the federal government. We can only hope that Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has placed an impressive portrait of Laurier in a place of pride in his private office for inspiration, re-kindles celebrations of Macdonald and Laurier and our other past PMs. Doing so is long overdue.