OFFICIAL REP OF* THR Liberal Convention HELD IN RESPONSE TO THE CALL OF HON. WILFRID LAURIER, LEADER OF THE LIBERAL PARTY OF THc DOMINION OF CANADA. OTTAWA, TUESDAY,. JUNE 20TH, AND WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21ST, 1893- Toronto : Published by the Budget Printing & Publishing Co. 1893. \ itered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, by The Budget Printing and Publishing Company, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture. ^ A THE CALL The folloiving appeared in the Liberal press immediately after the close of the session of the Do?ni?iion Parliament of i8gj : Conformably to a resolution adopted by the Liberal members of the House of Commons last session, a convention of the Liberal party is called, to take place in the City of Ottawa, on the 20th day of June, next. The Convention shall be composed as follows : Each Electoral District shall be represented by the Liberal member sitting for the same, or the Liberal candidate defeated in the last election held therein, and by five delegates appointed by the Liberal Association of the district. In an Electoral District entitled to elect more than one member the number of delegates to be appointed shall be as many times five as the district returns members. The Liberal press throughout the land is especially and earnestly invited to attend. WILFRID LAURIER, Ahthabaskaville, April ioth. DOMINION LIBERAL CONVENTION. Ottawa, June 20th, 1893. FIRST DAY—AFTERNOON SESSION. The delegates assembled in Rideau Rink at 3 p.m. Mr. Alexander McLean, Chairman of the Local Oommittee said : All Liberal members of the Privy Council, Liberal members and ex-members of Parliament are invited to take seato on the platform. There will be no further preliminaries, but at once a resolution will be moved. Hon. Wilfrid Laurier : Gentlemen : We have the good fortune to have amongst us in this vast audience one who is a veteran in the cause of Reform, who has been associated with all movements that have taken place for the last thirty years for the advancement of the people of Canada, who has been a successful leader of the Liberal party in the banner Province of the Dominion. I submit for your choice as Chairman of this Convention, Sir Oliver Mowat, Premier of the Province of Ontario. I may say that this motion is seconded by Hon. Mr. Marchand, leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Quebec. All in favor of that nomination will say " Aye." The response was unanimous. I need not ask if there is any opposition, the motion is carried unanimously. The Chairman's Opening Speech. Sir Oliver Mowat, on taking the chair, said : Mr. Laurier and gentle- men : I thank you for the great honor you do me in calling on me, and I suppose I may say unanimously, to preside at the great Convention of the Liberals of Canada. I congratulate you, my brother Liberals, that you have chosen for the day so auspicious an occasion as the present ; I con- gratulate you, loyal as I know you all are, that you have selected for this great Convention the anniversary of the accession of our most gracious Queen. I hope that the Reform party may yet be in power as long as Her Majesty has reigned over the British Empire. There have in my time been important conventions of the Liberals of my own Province, and with good results. The present is the first Conven- tion of the Liberals of all Canada since Confederation. I hope and believe that good results will come of this Convention also, in consolidating the party for its patriotic work, and preparing for victory at the next general election. In this work we have the comfort of knowing that there are good grounds for the hope that, with proper effort on our part meanwhile, the next general election will place at the head of Canada's Federal affairs ; 6 the distinguished Canadian who is our cherished Dominion leader, whom all men, without distinction of party or race, admire, whose purity of pur- pose and conduct all recognize, and who has the well-fouaded confidence in all respects of the Liberal party. A prospect so hopeful to our country may well animate every one of us to the greatest possible exertion for its realization. The Provinces of the Dominion are bound together by a com- mon Constitution, and a common relation to the Empire whose citizens we are; and the representatives of the Liberal party of every Province have met to-day to take counsel together as to the best devisable policy for the Lib- erals of all Canada to pursue as a party, in order to th •> largest practicable prosperity and greatest possible welfare in all respects of every Province of the Dominion, and therein of the Dominion as a whole, Ontario Liberals " are not for Ontario only ; are we, my friends 1 (Cries of No ") And Quebec Liberals, though they love Quebec much, are not for Quebec only ; is it not so, my brothers of Quebec 1 (Cries of " It is") The Liberals of the Mari- time Provinces are not for the Maritime Provinces only ; am I not right in saying so, my brothers? (Cries of " Right you are ") The Liberals of Manitoba and of British Columbia and our Northwest Territories are not for these so,- Provinces and Territories only ; is this not my brothers who cone from these parts 1 (Cries of "It is.") Yes; all of us from every Province and part of Canada are Canadians, and all of us are bent on doing our best for all Canada. I am glad to know it is so. There is no earthly object more fitting or grander for any people to apply themselves to with profound earnestness and hearty zeal than the common good of their country. It is said to be a glorious thing to die for one's country, and the Cana- dians of every Province and of every race and creed in it have repeatedly and whenever occasion offered, shown their readiness to hazard their lives in defence of their country. Thanks to them all. But if it is a glorious thing to die for one's country, it is also a glorious thing to live for one's country. Not many of us may ever be called on to die for our country I hope none of us may ; but all of us may live for our country, and in that way may do more for it than by dying for it. We live for our country when we perform with fidelity our duties as its citizens ; we live for our country when we take an active, thoughtful interest in procuring for it good government, and in adopting or supporting a beneficial and just policy in the conduct of its public affairs. And, my fellow-Oanaiians, are not these the objects which have brought us together today? It is not the affairs, however interesting and necessary, of a township or a town or a county that we are to deliberate on, but the affairs of half a continent, the affairs of a territory as extensive as the United States of America, and many times more extensive than France or Germany or the British isles. Questions are to occupy the attention of the Convention on which the future of half a continent may depend, and not for a year or two only, but for generations. Our Country, in the largest sense, is the British Empire, whatever the Nation may have been to us or to any of our ancestors in times that are past. To most of us one or other of the British islands is the Father- land. But loyalty is not confined to these ; all nationalities in Canada are on a level ; all have received the same consideration from the Sovereign am1 her Imperial advisers and her Parliament. Canadians have no com- plaints to make of injustice at her hands or at theirs. Our grievances are brought on us by the mistakes of our fellow- Canadians and the wrong- doings of some of them. The result of the Imperial policy and practice towards Canada is, that no line of nationality or of creed or of class dis- tinguishes those amongst us who are attached to the Empire from those who are not. Many, or perhaps all, of even those who look favorably on annexation do not do so from hostility towards the Empire. They are for annexation because they think that the present and future inhabi- tants of Canada would be better off economically if citizens of the United States than if they were nob ; and as against their view of the economical results of annexation they do not appreciate the force of considerations which have weight with the rest of us. Even the President of the Continen- tal Union Asvsociation has declared himself, and, I doubt not, honestly declared himself, notwithstanding his annex ationism, to be "an Englishman to the core." My desire is in what I say to avoid exciting subjects on which we may not be united. But if on suoh an occasion as this I should say noth- ing about annexation or British connection, and there should be ascertained to have been some annexationists in the Convention, my silence would be miscontrued by the enemy, and perhaps by others elsewhere, as implying that 1 had found the sentiment of the Convention to be against me on these subjects, and that for that reason I had said nothing.