Essay about Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Prior to the 20th century, Canada was struggling with many issues regarding sexism, racism, drimination, unfair working conditions, etc. During this time, many Canadians were ‘desperate’ for any chance of change or hope of their life criminstances improving. Likewise, in 1906, Wilfred Laurier, who was the prime minister at the time, made a proclamation that, "The 20th century shall be the century of Canada." As an attempt to bring back hope to the suffering Canadians, however, this statement turned out to be completely false and ended up creating more issues. Sequentially, before the downfall, he believed that his prediction would turn out true because it gave hope and got French and Canadians to like each other, which is an essential step to change.

Hope is one of the many things that drive motivation and recovery. Canada during this time had many issues that had affected many Canadians both physically and mentally. For instance, the workforce. The jobs during that time were often dangerous, tedious, and sometimes led to health problems. As a result, most Canadians were probably miserable and weren’t optimistic. So, Laurier tried to use this statement as a way to bring Canadians their optimism back. With more optimism, it stirs up creativity and motivation which are the main principles leading up to innovation. For the economy, innovation was an excellent way to expand businesses, which will end up decreasing the prices of items that were expensive before, and it will make life easier for working classes.

Furthermore, since Laurier was the first Franco-Canadian prime minister in Canada, he needed to make a remarkable impression on the public on the behalf of future French-Canadians. Through his bold prediction statement he made, he was able to gain some of the Canadians' trust and change their view of half Canadian prime ministers. Also, with Laurier having some of the Canadians' trust increases the chances of his prediction being right because if the francophone and Canadians like each other, it decreases the chances of a conflict occurring. Moreover, he used this statement because he believed that he was capable of changing the minds of Canadians, making it easier to make compromises with them. 

In the end, Laurier had a good intention of trying to fix Canada’s crisis, however, he should not have made the statement that "The 20th century shall be the century of Canada." Instead, he should have said something more realistic and attainable to avoid hurting the citizens more. On top of that, Laurier was also a French-Canadian, which most Canadians did not like at the time (weren't pureblood), but he was able to gain some of their trust, even so, they were a bit skeptical. So the slightest mistake would make them lose respect for him and make them dislike all French, which he should have known.