It is a great honour for me as the first Governor General of Canada to visit the Republic of Argentina, and to be here today in Canadian Springtime, and Argentine autumn, in the famous capital of this Republic Buenos Aires. It's a visit long overdue. I am also deeply honoured to lay a wreath at the Monument to El Liberatador San Mart n, the great emancipator. Not only is he an Argentina's liberator, he is also a hero in many other South American countries, and a master of military strategy. But first and foremost, he was a man of Argentina born here in the Viceroyalty of R o de la Plata, in the province of Corrientes.
All countries have their defining moments.
When the people become conscious of their nation, the accomplishments of their countrymen, these vital events become symbols, part of sustaining culture. It gives a country a sense of when, and under what circumstances, it came of age. A sense also of the future, of what can be achieved for the mettle has already been tested. Often these events are military. For Canada, such an event took place during the First World War in April 1917, when the Canadians, operating as a national unit for the first time, stormed and won the vital hitherto unassailable Vimy Ridge in France.