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Address by Prime Minister Jean
Chrétien on the Occasion of a Luncheon in Honour of Her Majesty the Queen and
His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh
October 7, 2002
Vancouver, British Columbia
Your Majesty, you have always been a model to Canadians of dignity and
decorum. I am sure that fans of the Vancouver Canucks noted the good effect that
your presence had on behaviour during the hockey game last night. I suspect the
NHL Head of Officials took equal note and will likely ask you to undertake a
tour of all NHL cities in the very near future.
But in all seriousness, I am pleased to see Your Majesty again so soon after
your arrival in Nunavut last Friday. And I am delighted that we will be seeing a
lot of each other during your travels.
When we met in Iqaluit, I could not help but think back on the many times,
public and private, that I have had the pleasure of your company. We first met
in the Northwest Territories in 1970. At which time I treated you and His Royal
Highness to a version of O' Canada that, I understand, is still a part of Royal
legend. And I will always remember briefing Your Majesty on the proclamation of
the Constitution Act of 1982, a watershed moment in the relationship between
Canada and the United Kingdom.
Your Golden Jubilee coincides with the 20th anniversary of our new
constitution and of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that is its
cornerstone. Over the past fifty years of your reign our country has undergone
extraordinary change. But no single document has so fundamentally confirmed our
capacity for change than the Charter.
It marked the confirmation, in our most basic law, of the cosmopolitan nation
we have become. A nation at home with our diversity, comfortable acknowledging
the rights of all of our citizens; willing to give those rights full recognition
in our laws and institutions, in practice as well as theory.
And if the Charter of Rights confirmed, in law, our national embrace of
cultural diversity, than the flavour of life in Vancouver confirms it in fact.
Nowhere in Canada is our cultural and linguistic richness more evident than in
this vibrant and exuberant city. Where so many immigrants first arrived to begin
living their dream of a better life in a new land. Where they, and their sons
and daughters, began making their own unique contribution to making Canada the
exemplary country that it is today.
Just a few months ago, it was my great privilege to take part in two
important celebrations of the diversity of Vancouver and of Canada: the official
designation of the Abbotsford Sikh Temple as the newest National Historic Site
of Canada and the opening of the Chinatown Millennium Gate.
Your Majesty, you have every right to be proud of this country and how it has
grown over the past fifty years.
For your steadfast commitment to duty, we salute you. For your unwavering
service to Canada, we honour you.
Ladies and gentlemen, please rise and join me in a toast: To the Queen.
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