Canadian Politician Quotes

I am king of my own little island, and that's all I've ever wanted to be.

Joseph Roberts Smallwood

I ran the paper [Daily Express] purely for propaganda, and with no other purpose.

Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

Debates must take place in an atmosphere of courtesy.

John Allen Fraser

Those with a gift for action, for their part, often express contempt for those whose gifts are more reflective. Men of action like to say, Those who can, do, those who can't, teach, forgetting that those who teach get to write the history books.

Michael Ignatieff

I've always found that you can control people better if you don't see too much of them.

William Lyon Mackenzie King

That diabolical deviant is smarter than he smells.

The greatest way to defend democracy is to make it work.

I know that through the grace of God, I am the founder of Manitoba.

Canada is not a country for the cold of heart or the cold of feet.

People I meet at parties, once they discover how I make my living, feel compelled to tell me about the low regard in which they hold advertising. But in return for my listening to their complaints, they have to answer some questions too. I ask them what they think of Hallmark's advertising, or Kraft's, or the Raid advertising with those cute bugs. Oh, well, that's different.

The Americans are our best friends whether we like it or not.

Robert Norman Thompson

[Canada's ruling circles seek] to ally themselves more closely with American imperialism without giving up the economic advantages of membership in the British Empire.

Generosity makes at least two people feel good.

When you're a mayor and you have a problem you blame the provincial government. If you are provincial government and you have a problem you blame the federal government. We don't blame the Queen any more, so once in a while we might blame the Americans.

Who has not first tried to get out of a tough situation before truly dealing with it?

People have no right to make fools of themselves, unless they have no relations to blush for them.

Thomas Chandler Haliburton

We must remain focused on the job of building our party. Jack showed us how we can do politics differently, how we can listen and respect other opinions and at the end of the day, remain united. And that's what we need to do today. We'll take difficult decisions but at the end of the day, we need to walk out of here and be united.

We need tolerant men. We must all give in a little.

The Englishman respects your opinions, but he never thinks of your feelings.

Wilfrid Laurier

Yes I have smoked crack cocaine. But, no, do I? Am I an addict? No. Have I tried it? Um, probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago.

If, as is believed by many Canadians, Canada can not exist without Quebec, then it simply does not deserve to exist.

Pierre Bourgault

The idea of a universal democracy in America is no more welcome to the minds of thoughtful men among us than was that of a universal monarchy to the mind of the thoughtful men who followed the standard of the third William in Europe, or who afterwards, under the great Marlborough, opposed the armies of the particular dynasty that sought to place Europe under a single dominion. (Hear, hear.) But if we are to a universal democracy on this continent, the lower provinces - the smaller fragments - will be "gobbled up" first, and we will come in afterwards by the way of dessert.

Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Canada's position was Saddam Hussein should be disarmed. Now, to be quite honest, I had a lot of difficulty understanding how he was going to be disarmed without being replaced.

The choice, however, is as clear now for nations as it was once for the individual: peace or extinction.

Lester B. Pearson

If the rising tide fails to lift all boats, resentments will increase.