Alberta's first day in Canada: Sept. 1, 1905

As Albertans barrel toward Oct. 19 and a referendum about the future of their province within Canada, it is worth recalling the day — Sept. 1, 1905 — that Alberta entered Confederation.

It was a moment of great confidence in the West and Canada, one that embodied Sir Wilfrid Laurier's great prophecy for the young nation he had led since 1896.

"Let me tell you, my fellow countrymen," he had said a year earlier, "that all signs point this way, that the 20th century shall be the century of Canada and Canadian development. For the next 70 years, nay, for the next 100 years, Canada shall be the star toward which all men who love progress and freedom shall come."

Thousands gathered in Edmonton to celebrate the culmination of Laurier's vision. They, too, were swept along by the seemingly endless possibilities that full provincial status within Canada represented.

The next day's Edmonton Journal described the moment well: "With glorious Alberta sunshine, amid the cheers of thousands of the strong-armed, loyal and true-hearted citizens the new province, before expectant faces of the fair daughters of a fair land, Alberta was proclaimed a province yesterday, a new state in the confederacy of the Dominion, bright jewel in the constellation the Empire . . .

"The ceremony was pregnant with historic meaning, and that was the note of the addresses of the distinguished sons of the Empire and of Canada, who in felicitous, patriotic terms, extended their congratulations to the citizens who were on that occasion granted a fuller measure of self-governing powers, and entrusted greater responsibilities and wider opportunities to work out their destiny."

What follows are some highlights of the speeches delivered by Laurier, governor general Lord Grey, and the province's first-ever lieutenant-governor George H. V. Bulyea on that special day for Alberta and Canada, where it seemed anything was possible.

On Oct. 19, Canadians and Albertans will determine if the confidence in the future of Alberta within Canada expressed on that September day in Edmonton in 1905 has been forgotten.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier: "If I look about me in the vast sea of upturned faces I see the determination of a young and vigorous people: I see the calm resolution, the courage, the enthusiasm to face all difficulties, to settle all the problems which may confront this new province. And, if it be true everywhere, it must be truer here in this bracing atmosphere of the prairie that "hope springs eternal in the human breast."

Laurier's special welcome to the immigrants then pouring into Alberta and all of Western Canada: "Let me say to one and all, above all those newly our fellow countrymen, that the Dominion of Canada is in one respect like the Kingdom of Heaven: those who come at the 11th hour will receive the same treatment as those who have been in the field for a long time. We want to share with them our lands, our laws, our civilization . . . Let them be electors as well as citizens. We do not want nor wish that any individual should forget the land of his origin. Let them look to the past, but let them still more look to the future. Let them look to the land of their ancestors, but let them look also to the land of their children. Let them become Canadians, British subjects and give their heart, their soul, their energy and all their power to Canada."

Governor general Earl Grey: "The day which marks all this is indeed a red-letter day in the history of the government of the King. That the province of Alberta will bring, as time goes on, in ever-increasing measure, an ever-added strength and lustre to the British Crown . . . is my confident expectation.

You, the people of Alberta, are justified in anticipating a steady flow of intending settlers into your province, for there are many who seek to better their conditions both in the new world and in the old, who are already counting the hours until they can embrace with both hands the rights you are able to offer them from out of your abundant treasury. For the rights you offer are the greatest that any land has to bestow upon mankind; they are represented by the happiness, the health and the wealth which your soil and your climate and your geographical position offer to all those who are willing to apply to the cultivation of the soil honest and persevering and intelligent industry."

Lieutenant-governor George H.V. Bulyea: "I have firm faith in the great future in store for the province and I believe all (Albertans) are ready to assume a share of the work of promoting this prosperity, whatever may be the responsibilities. Those of us who were here 20 odd years ago were doubtful of the future at times, but now the farmers of the West are confident of the reward of their labour. Year by year, new settlers are pouring in even more extensively than in the past. We can expect more development in the next five years than in the past."

King Edward VII: (Message read out by Grey at a celebratory banquet in Edmonton that evening): "Wishing Alberta good luck and prosperity."

Postscript: Laurier returns to Alberta; Speech at Medicine Hat, Sept. 3, 1910: "I left home a Canadian to the core. I return 10 times more Canadian. I have imbibed the air, spirit and enthusiasm of the West . . .We are all working together to build up Canada as a nation. We are not following in a beaten path but by choosing our own course and hewing out our own road. Our experience has no parallel in any part or age of the world."

Arthur Milnes, a speech writer to former prime minister Stephen J. Harper, is the editor of Canada Always: The Defining Speeches of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.