Queen Elizabeth II Canada Day, 1990:
“I particularly recall another July 1st in Canada’s Centennial Year, here on Parliament Hill. I said then, and I repeat it today, that ‘Canada is a country that has been blessed beyond most countries in the world.’ It is a country worth working for….I am not just a fair weather friend, and I am glad to be here at this sensitive time. I hope my presence may call to mind those many years of shared experience, and raise new hopes for the future. The unity of the Canadian people was the paramount issue in 1867, as it is today. There is no force except the force of will to keep Canadians together…”
David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, Canada Day, 2011:
“Canadians have always imagined what can be and have worked hard to achieve it. We dream of new possibilities and set out to realize them. Happy birthday, Canada!”
Franklin Roosevelt during a visit to Quebec City in 1936:
…when I have been in Canada, I have never heard a Canadian refer to an American as a “foreigner.” He is just an “American.” And, in the same way, in the United States, Canadians are not “foreigners,” they are “Canadians.” That simple little distinction illustrates to me better than anything else the relationship between our two countries.
Bill Clinton addressing the Canadian House of Commons in 1995:
Canada has shown the world how to balance freedom with compassion and tradition with innovation, in your efforts to provide health care to all your citizens, to treat your senior citizens with the dignity and respect they deserve, to take on tough issues like the move afoot to outlaw automatic weapons designed for killing and not for hunting….
Lester B. Pearson:
Canada is a place of infinite promise. We like the people, and if one ever had to emigrate, this would be the destination, not the U.S.A. The hills, lakes and forests make it a place of peace and repose of the mind, such as one never finds in the U.S.A.
John Diefenbaker from the Canadian Bill of Rights, July 1, 1960:
I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.