Sir John A. Macdonald Speaks About Canada’s Constitution
Image: Delegates of the Charlottetown Conference on the steps of Government House, photographed by George P. Roberts. Library and Archives Canada MIKAN 3194513.
Source of quotation: Guillet, Edwin. “You’ll Never Die, John A.!” Macmillan of Canada, 1967.
Transcript of Sir John A. Macdonald’s words, on the subject of Canada’s Constitution, read by Nick Olcott:
[Nick Olcott] “I would again implore the House not to let this opportunity pass. It is an opportunity that may never recur. At the risk of repeating myself, I would say, it was only by a happy concurrence of circumstances, that we were enabled to bring this great question to its present position. If we do not take advantage of the time, if we show ourselves unequal to the occasion, it may never return, and we shall hereafter bitterly and unavailingly regret having failed to embrace the happy opportunity now offered of founding a great nation under the fostering care of Great Britain, and our Sovereign Lady, Queen Victoria.”