Ottawa

Throne Speeches through the ages: Pinch us, we must be dreaming!

Attention political junkies: the full text of every Speech from the Throne is here

Attention fellow political junkies!

Did you know that the full text of each and every Speech from the Throne – from 1867 to last November – is now perusable online, thanks to the Library of Parliament? ITQ certainly didn’t – not until just this minute, when she was casting about the parliamentary website trying to figure out whether the subsequent debate is, in fact, optional – another story for another post – when she stumbled upon it by purest providential googlechance. Could be the start of the long hoped-for digitalization of a century and a half of parliamentary debate? Let a thousand – or however many volumes there are – e-ified back issues of Hansard bloom!

Anyway, as the countdown begins to tomorrow’s festivities, feel free to dig into the entrails of past parliamentary kickoffs to see just how many times the federal government has pledged to do away with the scourge of interprovincial trade barriers – and feel free to post any particularly delicious excerpts in the comments.

(Yes, the fact that ITQ is this excited by her discovery is almost certainly cause for concern.)

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