On national unity, here's Harper's famous firewall comment (in a letter to the National Post):
It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction.And who can forget this gem?
Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status...By contrast, here's Dion in the introduction to Le pari de la franchise:
La première des convictions que j'expose dans ce livre est que notre pays, le Canada, est d'abord et avant tout, un principe d'entraide, l'un des meilleurs que l'esprit humain ait inventés....Roughly translated, "Canada is above all a principle of mutual assistance, one of the best that the human mind has ever invented... The greatest strength of Canada is its capacity to bring together different populations around common goals. This alliance of unity and diversity wouldn't be possible without the federalism that we have invented."
Ce qui constitue la principale force et la vraie grandeur du Canada est sa capacité de rassembler des populations différentes autour d'objectifs communs. Cet alliage de l'unité et de la diversité ne saurait se maintenir sans le fédéralisme que nous avons inventé. [pp. xv-xvi]
From the English edition, Straight Talk, here's Dion on 'Why is being Canadian so valuable?'
No, the reason I consider myself so fortunate to be Canadian is not because of what is distinctive and particular to this country, but because of our achievement of universal ideals. Canada is the greatest example of what the world must become in terms of tolerance, openness, and capacity for harmony between different communities. [p. 132]En français:
Non, si je me sens aussi chanceux d'être Canadien, ce n'est pas à cause de ce qui distingue et caractérise notre pays, mais plutôt parce que nous réalisons des idéaux humains universels. Le Canada est le meilleur example de ce à quoi on doit aspirer dans le monde entier sur les plans de la tolérance, de l'ouverture et de l'harmonie entre diverses communautés. [p. 142]He closed a speech to the Faculty of Law, Université de Montréal, March 18, 1998, with this:
The Canadian ideal is that of a country where human beings have the best chance to be considered as human beings....
We must keep Canada united and make it even better, for ourselves, for our children, for future generations of Canadians, but also for all those human beings throughout the world who love our country as a paradigm of what the world can become. [Source: "150 years of Canadian democracy." Canadian Speeches 12.2 (May 1998): 13-18. ]
