Prime Minister Laurier on being a Canadian

Here is how our Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier,  Canada's seventh PM from 1896 to 1911 and first francophone holder of the office, described what it means to be a Canadian:.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes a Canadian and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.

"But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet a Canadian, and nothing but a Canadian...

"There can be no divided allegiance here.

"Any man who says he is a Canadian, but something else also, isn't a Canadian at all.

"We have room for but one flag, the Canadian flag...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the Canadian people."

Wilfred Laurier 1907