This Is What We Lost Yesterday

From Pierre Trudeau's speech at the repatriation ceremony for the Constitution, 1982:

The Canadian ideal which we have tried to live, with varying degrees of success and failure for a hundred years, is really an act of defiance against the history of mankind. Had this country been founded upon a less noble vision, or had our forefathers surrendered to the difficulties of building this nation, Canada would have been torn apart long ago. It should not surprise us, therefore, that even now we sometimes feel the pull of those old reflexes of mutual fear and distrust.

We are about to embrace that "less noble vision". We are unilaterally "surrendering to the difficulties of building this nation".

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