The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 28. THE GREAT DOMINION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 375, 28 April 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 28. THE GREAT DOMINION.

It is never to lie forgotten that Canada was once "New France," or that its Premier is a French Canadian, that in some parts of the great Dominion a. French "patois" is spoken exclusively, or that the present generation are the descendants of the French colonists of 1703. In Quebec the French retain the customs and reverences of the seventeenth century, and their sympathies are wholly French. It is natural and beautiful that this should be so, for there is no character more lovable and no person more desirable than the best type of French peasant. France sends hardly any emigrants to Canada, so that the people of French blood are almost wholly the descendants of the colonists. Canada is to them "New France," Sir •Wilfrid Laurier is the Prime Minister of New France. In the Dominion Parliament French is an official language by statute. The Roman Catholics exceed all other' religious denominations by two to one, and this may be taken to mean that the French element largely supplies the church membership. Events have occurred of late that tend to show that Canada, as far as Imperial schemes are concerned, is not wholly with the Mother Country. The Prime Minister has not shown absolute sympathy with naval or military federation; Lord Kitchener "missed" Canada. The cable 'we publish this morning suggests the possibility of a French Canadian party in the Dominion House of Commons. It seems reasonable to believe that if such a- party were formed, the present French Canadian Premier might become leader. The enormous support he would receive from the province of Quebec, as well as from other portions of the Dominion, from people of his own blood might have a large influence in determining the future of Canada and whether the Crown shall hold it. There is, of course, not the remotest possibility that France would interfere, for, speaking generally, there are no French citizens in Canada, and the entente cordiale happily still exists between Republic and Empire. The opposition of the French Canadian element in the Dominion House of Commons would not be to the British element, for the racial trouble is not apparent in the country. But thousands of British and French Canadians look to the United States and to France as patterns. Canada is an enormous territory with one person (or thereabouts) to the square mile. Its potentialities are as great as those of the United States. The people have the same restless, resistless commercial enterprise, and attracts the genius and brawn of the Old World. It is an ambitious child, and, finding that it can walk well, it desires to run; and, although it is not inevitable, a time may come when it will run unsupported. The French element, with the Republic of France as a pattern, may wield much influence in politics and public opinion; the fact that Canada can be easily selfsupporting may be an extra inducement to republicanism. Whatever may happen, speculating on the possibilities of the Canada of the future is highly interesting, and not the least interesting point 'will be the position to be occupied by Sir Wilfred Laurier when a strong party of French Canadians is in opposition to the existing Government, bound by every tie to be loyal to the Crown and Imperialistic at least in sentiment. The dominating idea in the minds of Canadians of whatever race must be the future of Canada, and the minor idea the future of the Empire. Canada will yet determine for herself which pays the better, Imperialism or Nationalism, and the French Canadian will be one of the determining factors in a solution of the great problem.