-thus far--and in representing
Canada, draw a sturdy young fellow, strong and well set, full of muscle
and vim, and we like to think that the representation is a good one,
for we are a young nation, coming into our vigor, and with our future
in our own hands. We have an area of one-third of the whole British
Empire, and one-fifth of that of Asia. Canada is as large as thirty
United Kingdoms and eighteen Germanys. Canada is almost as large as
Europe. It is bounded by three oceans and has thirteen thousand miles
of coast line, that is, half the circumference of the earth.

Canada's land area, exclusive of forest and swamp lands, is
1,401,000,000 acres; 440,000,000 acres of this is fit for cultivation,
but only 36,000,000 acres, or 2.6 per cent of the whole, is cultivated,
so it would seem that there are still a few acres left for anyone who
may happen to want it. We need not be afraid of crowding. We have a
great big blank book here with leather binding and gold edges, and now
our care should be that we write in it worthily. We have no precedents
to guide us, and that is a glorious thing, for precedents, like other
guides, are disposed to grow tyrannical, and refuse to let us do
anything on our own initiative. Life grows wearisome in the countries
where precedents and conventionalities rule, and nothing can happen
unless it has happened before. Here we do not worry about
precedents--we make our own!

Main Street, in Winnipeg, now one of the finest business streets in the
world, followed the trail made by the Red River carts, and, no doubt,
if the driver of the first cart knew that in his footsteps would follow
electric cars and asphalt paving, he would have driven straighter. But
he did not know, and we do not blame him for that. But we know, for in
our short day we have seen the prairies blossom into cities, and we
know that on the paths which we are marking out many feet will follow,
and the responsibility is laid on us to lay them broad and straight and
safe so that many feet may be saved from falling.

We are too young a nation yet to have any distinguishing characteristic
and, of course, it would not be exactly modest for us to attribute
virtues to ourselves, but there can be harm in saying what we would
like our character to be. Among the people of the world in the years
to come, we will ask no greater heritage for our country than to be
known as the land of the Fair Deal, where every race, color and c