How Laurier’s stirring speech defending Riel forged his reputation
By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 7, 2011 - 1 Comment
An exclusive excerpt from André Pratte’s biography of Wilfrid Laurier
National Archives of Canada/CP
“Those who are seeking a knight in shining armour, a defender of principles against all odds, will be disappointed by Wilfrid Laurier,” writes André Pratte in his biography of Canada’s seventh prime minister, the latest in Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series (in stores March 8). “Those who know that a man of principle can govern only by showing patience and realism will find in him a model.”
He was a master of rationality, reason and the middle ground—“the most pragmatic of men,” as Pratte dubs him. And not only was he able to sustain such balance—serving in Parliament from 1874 to 1917, as prime minister for 15 of those years—but he did so passionately and at a time when the young nation was divided by questions of language, race, religion, region, war, imperialism and nationalism. “What I discovered for myself was how much he reflected what Canada is or in some cases should be,” says Pratte, the editor-in-chief of La Presse. “Canada is built on compromise and conciliation and dialogue and listening to others and trying to find common ground, and Laurier not only did that because it was imposed on him by the country’s situation, he really was someone who wanted to discuss and wanted to look for compromise.”
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Rira bien…
By Paul Wells - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 10:30 AM - 33 Comments
We are profoundly saddened to read today’s La Presse editorial.
[UPDATE: Okay, it was yesterday's. Rira bien qui rira un peu en retard.]
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"One of the most incompetent and harmful governments this country has ever known"
By Philippe Gohier - Friday, July 23, 2010 at 4:43 PM - 0 Comments
André Pratte has an absolutely devastating editorial in today’s La Presse, in which he essentially calls for an anti-Harper mutiny by cabinet ministers he otherwise lambastes “for having such a poor handle on their files, they unjustly make the federal government look profoundly incompetent.” You really should go read the thing for yourself, but here are some translated bits:
The controversy surrounding the terms of the census is typical of the pillaging the conservatives have engaged in since coming to power. Not only is their behaviour dictated by simplistic ideology, the Conservatives impose their politics while displaying a exceptional degree of incompetence.
A competent right-wing government would have asked Statistics Canada to do an in-depth comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of mandatory and optional census forms. It would have then submitted the proposed solution to consultation, as is done with all modifications to the census. Instead, the government decided to change its approach in spite of the reservations of Statistics Canada on the sole basis of phone calls to MPs’ constituency offices. School boards are run more seriously than that.
[...]
Before this government does even more harm to the institution that is the government of Canada, the intelligent people within the federal cabinet have a duty to rise up and stop the pillaging. Otherwise, the Harper government may be remembered as one of the most incompetent and harmful governments this country has ever known.
I think it’s probably safe to say Pratte would like to politely withdraw his paper’s 2006 endorsement of the Conservatives.
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BTC: NDP et cetera
By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 6:50 PM - 3 Comments
Five years ago this might’ve appeared in the form of a notebook for a Sunday newspaper. Now you get to read it without getting ink on your hands. Progress…
-Perhaps to the chagrin of his speechwriters, Jack Layton tends not to follow his script too closely when delivering speeches, rewriting sentences and skipping the odd bit as he goes. At one point on Saturday, the teleprompter read only, “Tell taxi driver and gas price story.”
For the most part this understandably lends him a looser, more conversational tone. And sometimes his ad-libs improve on the text. But, at least on Saturday, his cadence was off and not sticking to his script (with the cadence his speechwriters had built into it) actually ruined some of his applause lines. To large degree, a public speaker needs to guide his or her audience. Obama, to lazily use an obvious example, tells his audience how and when to cheer with pace and tone and volume. Layton’s deviating from his script actually resulted in his audience cheering, on several occasions, before he could get to the kicker.
All that said, he’s probably still the best public speaker of the national party leaders. As small a compliment as that is.
—This poll escaped much notice this weekend, but is probably worth consideration. While Harper, Dion and Duceppe all hurt more than helped their respective images this first week, Layton at least broke even. Continue…
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Quebec and modern memory: a brief sequel
By Paul Wells - Friday, May 9, 2008 at 2:09 PM - 0 Comments
I will translate larger portions of André Pratte’s editorial when I get a minute, but here it is if you want to chew on it yourself. All I can say is that since I wrote this long post yesterday, the usual suspects at Le Devoir are continuing to chew the guedille over the Charest-Harper-Michaëlle Jean “rewriting” of history. Pratte’s editorial in La Presse will be distinctly embarrassing. He opens with a quote from….Champlain:
“Your Majesty must have enough knowledge of the discoveries made in his honour of New France (called Canada) through the writings that certain Captains and Pilots have made.”
That’s from 1613. Hmm. Continue…
