We now join Laurier as he reaches the summit, becoming Canada’s first French-Canadian prime minister. Canadians reward him with a string of four consecutive election victories. But this section ends with Laurier on the hustings, fighting – and losing – on the issue of free trade with the United States.

Many of the addresses assembled here are delivered by Laurier in the House of Commons, where he pays tribute to fallen leaders such as Sir Oliver Mowat, William Gladstone, and Queen Victoria. On the floor of the House he is also presented with a portrait of himself from admirers, and responds graciously. John Willison, writing so near to these events, notes how Laurier’s rhetoric soars on these occasions:

“In all of his speeches which do not touch [upon] strictly controversial issues, there is the even poise and the deep-searching spirit of the historian, and a serenity and sanity which reveal qualities that rarely find expression in the narrow field of partisan controversy,” he writes. “It is understood that Sir Wilfrid Laurier at one time designed to write a history of Canada…but was deterred by political duties and particularly by his acceptance of the leadership of the Liberal Party….Many of his speeches reveal the true historical insight and a profound conception of the underlying motives and the currents of the conspicuous events of the age in which he has lived.”¹¹⁸

Readers will find further evidence of the accuracy of Willison’s views in other addresses presented in this section. A lecture about the British and American constitutions Laurier delivers before a women’s group in 1909 is another example.

Laurier on the world stage is also showcased in this section. In 1897 he delivers a famous Dominion Day address in London, England, in triumph after taking Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations by storm on his inaugural foreign visit as prime minister. He also addresses an American audience in Chicago with the U.S. president sitting prominently in the audience. Later, he returns home from a European tour and is greeted by thousands of Ottawa residents who, whatever their partisan views, listen with pride as he describes the world capitals he has just visited on their behalf.

But the years of his premiership are not all about lofty ideas, Canadian progress, and idealism. Laurier, after all, leads a political party and government in the political trenches. We see Laurier the partisan helping Ontario’s provincial Liberals in a campaign and witness a seasoned prime minister, in 1907, swiftly confront a ministerial scandal involving that potent (and volatile) mixture of sex and alcohol.

Although we glow at Laurier’s promise from the stage at Massey Hall (and other venues) that the twentieth century will be Canada’s moment, we also cringe, from today’s vantage point, as he discusses – a man of his times – such issues as Chinese immigration to Canadian shores.

The Canadian West figures prominently in this section. Laurier’s government grants provincial status to Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905. Five years later, readers follow Laurier, starting in Thunder Bay, Ontario, as he travels across the West and is greeted by thousands wherever the train stops.

Then comes the 1911 campaign – and the end of the Laurier Years.