Mr. HANCE J. LOGAN moved:
That, in the opinion of this House, the British tariff preference should be confined to goods brought into Canada through Canadian seaports.
He said: Mr. Speaker, the tariff preference granted by this country on goods of the mother country and most of the dominions was distinctly a family matter. It created a very favorable impression throughout the Empire, and inspired the greatest of all living imperial poets to write those wonderful lines-
A Nation spoke to a Nation,
A Queen sent word to a Throne, "Daughter am I in my mother's house,
But mistress in my own.
The gates are mine to open,
As the gates are mine to close."
I desire, to-day, Mr. Speaker, to advocate that the gates of a foreign country shall be closed to this preference, freely given by the daughter to the mother.
I submit you cannot build a nation upon pure materialism. In order to make a great country, you must create a national spirit. We need, I submit, in Canada, more intense Canadianism. What we lack-and I know not the reason-is that patriotic fervour that is so great an element in the building of national character. I desire to proclaim to the world that Canada is self-reliant and independent of other nations, and I desire, as far as I can, to impress upon certain dealers in goods on the other side of the Atlantic that this country is not bound in fields of ice during four or five months of the year.
A few years ago the British Medical Association met in Toronto. They were sending out some specimens or some articles, required for demonstration. The association meeting was held in August, and on the box containing these articles
45Z
for demonstration was written in plain English "Please protect from Frost". A merchant in Ottawa ordered certain Christmas goods in London to be delivered via the Canadian Pacific Railway Steamships. He received a letter in the early part of December stating that they regretted very much that they could not get these goods away before the Canadian ports had frozen up, and, therefore, they were sending them via New York. Surely, Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to declare, to the people of England at any rate, that we have ports in this country, both on the Atlantic and the Pacific, which are open the year around.
This policy which I advocate has been proclaimed ever since Confederation, and even before. One of the leading policies of Canada has been that Canadian trade shall be carried through Canadian channels. Why did we build the Canadian Pacific Railway except to create trade east and west and west and east? The Intercolonial, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the National Transcontinental and the Canadian Northern were constructed largely to build up an interprovincial trade in Canada east and west and west and east. Even before Confederation this was a vision of our forefathers. It was eloquently expressed by the fathers of Confederation. The Hon. D'Arcy McGee, the great Irish-Canadian orator and statesman, speaking in the Confederation debate said:
One reason why I, in season, and perhaps out of season, have continued an advocate for an Intercolonial railway has been that first, closest and most lasting connection of these Lower Provinces with the continental trade system, might be established by and through and in union with Canada.
The same policy applied to the building extension and enlargement of the canals of Ontario and Quebec. The advantages of the policy which I advocate would not, by any means, be confined to the Maritime Provinces or to the ports of St. John and Halifax. It would be to the advantage of all ports in Canada. The English fall importation would largely come in through the ports of Quebec and Montreal, and importations from different British possessions, particularly New Zealand, to which the British preference applies, would be brought in via Vancouver and Prince Rupert.
The cost of every carload of freight sent from the maritime provinces or British Columbia is increased because of the car having to be hauled back empty or nearly so. The cost of every shipload of freight from Montreal, Quebec, Halifax or St.
