PM pumps up caucus with appeal to Canada's past

Prime Minister Stephen Harper greets his National Caucus before speaking at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Jan. 30, 2013. Andre Forget/QMI Agency

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OTTAWA ? Prime Minister Stephen Harper welcomed his Conservative caucus back to Ottawa Wednesday morning with a speech that outlined his government's plans to celebrate some important but potentially controversial milestones in the country's history.

With his five freshly appointed senators sitting in the front row in the Conservative caucus meeting room in Parliament's Centre Block, Harper vowed to keep a steady hand on the economy and to continue work on public safety issues. But he also said that Canada will soon "proudly remember" the centennial of the First World War beginning next year, the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Sir John A. Macdonald in 2015, and the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017.

"These milestones remind us of a proud national story rooted in the great deeds of our ancestors and in a centuries-old constitutional legacy of freedom," Harper said.

Though most historians would agree the First World War was an important event in Canada's development as a country, it was also one that saw the first major English-French split after Confederation.

Few officers in the Canadian army of the period spoke French and French Canada strongly resisted conscription in 1917, believing it to be imposed on them by an English Canada that was still, at the time, very much connected to an imperial Britain.

Modern-day Quebecers seemed to have little enthusiasm for last year's commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 - a war that was, technically speaking, between Great Britain and the United States, and a commemoration of the First World War may be used an excuse by some in Quebec to remind French Canada of the linguistic divide that exists today.

Notably, while Harper spoke in both French and English to his caucus when he spoke about his government's focus on the economy and on public safety, his remarks about commemorating the First World War and Macdonald's birthday were in English only.

Source: http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/01/30/pm-pumps-up-caucus-with-appeal-to-canadas-past

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