Canadian History Quotes

Estranged from the powerful protection of the United Kingdom, you must be re-annexed to the dominion of France from which the provinces of Canada were wrested by the arms of Great Britain, at a vast expense of blood and treasure, for no other motive than to relieve her ungrateful children from the oppression of a cruel neighbor.

My parents were both from Scotland, but had been resident in Lower Canada some time before their marriage, which took place in Montreal; and in that city I spent most of my life.

Like every Canadian, I have been taught that one of the most important functions of art is to supply and elaborate the myths and narratives of nationhood.

Personally speaking, Canada is becoming more and more beguiling and mysterious and I feel as though I really need to explore it.

Throughout our history, Canada's immigration policy has brought people here who had a pathway to citizenship. They were - and are - nation builders. It has been supported by political parties of all stripes and promoted by successive governments over generations.

First of all, when you live in a country like Canada, it's quite different from America in the sense that it's very tied to traditions that were born in Britain.

I do dead Canadians. If he's dead and he's Canadian and he's famous, I'll be playing him at some point.

We are always in hopes that our good king [the King of France] will come to the assistance of this country [Canada] and will cause those rascally Iroquois to be destroyed.

I view Indigenous Canadians as an integral part of our society, proud of their contribution to Canadian history, great deal of respect for all they did pre-Confederation, the way that they have been partners in building this society we have, and I'm very proud to represent a dozen First Nations communities in my own riding.

For people like me, who have got their flags and wars mixed up, I think it should be pointed out that there may have been only one War of 1812, but there are four distinct versions of it - the American, the British, the Canadian, and the Native American.

Hockey historians say the handshake dates to English settlers in Canada, who preached an upper-class version of sportsmanship in the 19th century. Soon, tough kids in urban and prairie rinks began imitating imagined dukes and earls of the old country.

I have a fond appreciation for the Canadian culture and the Canadian food scene in general.

I didn't think [Canadian Prime Minister John] Diefenbaker was a son of a bitch. I thought he was a prick.

When I was in school, all our history books were American, so we learned American history, not Canadian history.

Really, it's only been since the '70s that Canadians have had any pride in their country.

The construction of the Intercontinental Railway is essential to the Consolidation of the Union of British North America.

The Hudson's Bay Company has always been the guardian angel of the north.

Historically, a Canadian is an American who rejects the Revolution.

We have quietly and almost without observation, annexed all the country between here [Ottawa] and the Rocky Mountains.

When you go back and look at American history, it's not terribly different from Canadian history. If you weren't self-reliant on the prairie, you wouldn't survive.

The break with and the rejection of Europe, decisive in the making of the American people, did not take place in Canada. In the formative period of Canadian history the immigrant's arrival in North America represented not a rejection of Europe and its values but an affirmation of them. This is the deepest and most meaningful difference between Canada and the United States.

Americans assume Canada to be bestowed as a right and accept this bounty, as they do air, without thought or appreciation.

The Canadian risings of the 1830s obliged the men in London to think much harder about settler self-government.

Canada evolved within the British Empire: it inherited the Parliamentary system, the Cabinet system and all the other features of the British constitutional system which had been in place, for the most part, for several centuries before Canada was even thought of.

We French-Canadians belong to one country, Canada: Canada is for us the whole world: but the English-Canadians have two countries, one here and one across the sea.