{"id":17683,"date":"2017-06-28T17:40:30","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T21:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17683"},"modified":"2017-06-28T17:40:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T21:40:30","slug":"a-canada-150-poem-from-1879","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/a-canada-150-poem-from-1879\/","title":{"rendered":"A Canada 150 poem from 1879"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1879 the MP for this riding (then York North) was Frederick W. Strange.
\nDr. Strange was the second owner of Hillary House, from 1869 to 1876, but had moved to Toronto in 1876. He won the York North seat in the 1878 election.
\nIn his maiden speech in the House of Commons (21 March 1879) he delivered the poem below. He did not give the author\u2019s name, but said it had been written by an old resident of the area in 1852. I have not been able to find the verse elsewhere except as a quotation from Dr. Strange\u2019s speech.
\nI am no expert on poetry, but I suspect one might describe this piece as \u201cstirring,\u201d rather than \u201cfine\u201d or \u201cexquisite\u201d!
\nHere is how it appeared in Hansard (House of Common Debates, Fourth Parliament, First Session: volume 1, p. 629):<\/p>\n

I see thee, not at natal hour,
\nBut ages hence, in sovereign power \u2013
\nWhen the fleet iron-horse shall rear
\nFrom Nootka Sound to Labrador;
\nWhen thy rich belt, with commerce spanned,
\nShall send its wealth from land to land,
\nAnd millions shall find happy homes
\nWhere now the untamed buffalo roams;
\nWhen teeming cities, villas fair,
\nAnd all the arts of peace are there;
\nWhen college, school and churches\u2019 spires,
\nAll glitter in solstitial fires;
\nAnd mountain, mine and spreading plain
\nDiffuse their wealth from main to main,
\nAnd jarring races, fused in one,
\nRejoice in name \u2013 Canadian.<\/em><\/p>\n


\nJacqueline Stuart
\nAurora<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1879 the MP for this riding (then York North) was Frederick W. Strange. Dr. Strange was the second owner of Hillary House, from 1869 to 1876, but had moved to Toronto in 1876. He won the York North seat in the 1878 election. In his maiden speech in the House of Commons (21 March […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4Bd","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 09:11:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}