- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 410
Governor General Adrienne Clarkson delivered the following address during Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill:
I'm delighted to be able to look out at all of you massed on the Hill today. You are beautiful! Happy Canada Day to you, and to everyone who is watching across the country. They can see for themselves what a great scene this is. From where I stand, Canada and Canadians look fabulous!
In June, John Ralston Saul and I looked at Canada from the top of the world - the 83rd parallel - at Canadian Forces Station Alert. It sits at the tip of Ellesmere Island, and it's the northern-most settlement in the world. Its nearest neighbours are Greenland and Russia, but it is our territory. It is inhabited by our people. It is incredible to see Canada from that point of view. We realized how important the North must be to Canadians - it shows us the full dimensions of our country.
The only thing as beautiful as our people is our geography. Today, we delight in the cheering and singing; we've heard great music and the roar of the Snowbirds, and we will love the fireworks to come. But in Nunavut, we spent a sunlit night in a tent in Canada's newest national park, Quttinirpaaq. Up there, we were overwhelmed by a glorious silence. We saw the tracks of the musk oxen and the first blooming of purple saxifrage, those extraordinary Arctic flowers that cover the hills. We felt very small gazing at the enormous glaciers. And once again, we learned from our great northern people, the Inuit, about the proper custodianship of this mighty land.
There are so many ways to love Canada. There are so many reasons to do it! We are blessed by beauty. We are blessed by peace. We are blessed by astonishing achievements, because Canadians can do anything. We are working little miracles in our families and communities, within this great country and everywhere in the world.
For our diversity and inclusion, we are an inspiration and a model to other nations. To many of the world's most disadvantaged peoples, Canada is a land of hope and promise. We should see ourselves this way.
We should see ourselves as Sir Wilfrid Laurier saw us 100 years ago, when he welcomed Saskatchewan and Alberta as new provinces. To their citizens, he said, "If I look about me...I see the determination of a young and vigorous people; I see the calm resolution, the courage, the enthusiasm to face all difficulties, to settle all the problems which may confront (us)..."
Laurier might have been looking ahead to the terrible conflicts to come, and to the brave Canadians who were to serve in them. Our veterans - of the Second World War, of the Korean conflict, and of all the places where they have opposed tyranny and stood for peace - have left behind them a trail of international goodwill and admiration for Canada.
In this Canadian Year of the Veteran, I was privileged to meet so many of them in the Netherlands in May, as we recalled its liberation by Canadian troops. The veterans are more and more willing to speak about their experiences, and we must listen and remember. The French, the Italians and the Dutch certainly do. The young men that we have lost are honoured in beautifully tended cemeteries all over Europe. At Holten in the Netherlands, children light candles on over 1300 Canadian gravestones each Christmas. When our veterans returned to the scenes of their sacrifice, they were cheered with wild enthusiasm. At Apeldoorn, I felt as though my heart was going to burst.
Today, I know that you appreciate the country for what it is. I wish for you the contentment that the quest for justice can bring. I wish for you the happiness that working together creates. This is our enterprise.
I'm delighted to be able to look out at all of you massed on the Hill today. You are beautiful! Happy Canada Day to you, and to everyone who is watching across the country. They can see for themselves what a great scene this is. From where I stand, Canada and Canadians look fabulous!
In June, John Ralston Saul and I looked at Canada from the top of the world - the 83rd parallel - at Canadian Forces Station Alert. It sits at the tip of Ellesmere Island, and it's the northern-most settlement in the world. Its nearest neighbours are Greenland and Russia, but it is our territory. It is inhabited by our people. It is incredible to see Canada from that point of view. We realized how important the North must be to Canadians - it shows us the full dimensions of our country.
The only thing as beautiful as our people is our geography. Today, we delight in the cheering and singing; we've heard great music and the roar of the Snowbirds, and we will love the fireworks to come. But in Nunavut, we spent a sunlit night in a tent in Canada's newest national park, Quttinirpaaq. Up there, we were overwhelmed by a glorious silence. We saw the tracks of the musk oxen and the first blooming of purple saxifrage, those extraordinary Arctic flowers that cover the hills. We felt very small gazing at the enormous glaciers. And once again, we learned from our great northern people, the Inuit, about the proper custodianship of this mighty land.
There are so many ways to love Canada. There are so many reasons to do it! We are blessed by beauty. We are blessed by peace. We are blessed by astonishing achievements, because Canadians can do anything. We are working little miracles in our families and communities, within this great country and everywhere in the world.
For our diversity and inclusion, we are an inspiration and a model to other nations. To many of the world's most disadvantaged peoples, Canada is a land of hope and promise. We should see ourselves this way.
We should see ourselves as Sir Wilfrid Laurier saw us 100 years ago, when he welcomed Saskatchewan and Alberta as new provinces. To their citizens, he said, "If I look about me...I see the determination of a young and vigorous people; I see the calm resolution, the courage, the enthusiasm to face all difficulties, to settle all the problems which may confront (us)..."
Laurier might have been looking ahead to the terrible conflicts to come, and to the brave Canadians who were to serve in them. Our veterans - of the Second World War, of the Korean conflict, and of all the places where they have opposed tyranny and stood for peace - have left behind them a trail of international goodwill and admiration for Canada.
In this Canadian Year of the Veteran, I was privileged to meet so many of them in the Netherlands in May, as we recalled its liberation by Canadian troops. The veterans are more and more willing to speak about their experiences, and we must listen and remember. The French, the Italians and the Dutch certainly do. The young men that we have lost are honoured in beautifully tended cemeteries all over Europe. At Holten in the Netherlands, children light candles on over 1300 Canadian gravestones each Christmas. When our veterans returned to the scenes of their sacrifice, they were cheered with wild enthusiasm. At Apeldoorn, I felt as though my heart was going to burst.
Today, I know that you appreciate the country for what it is. I wish for you the contentment that the quest for justice can bring. I wish for you the happiness that working together creates. This is our enterprise.
