This is a day for all Canadians to honour the first peoples of this land. And today, I am proud to be with you as we celebrate National Aboriginal Day.
Some people speak of Canada as a young country, and that is partly true.
Two hundred years ago, Toronto was barely a village, and European pioneers were just finding their way to the west. When the first French settlers came to eastern Canada, Native people gave them medicines and saved them from the disease of scurvy. When the explorer La V rendrye first reached the prairies, everybody hailed his discoveries. But a Native man named Auchagah had given him the map. When the British first settled at the Red River in Manitoba, they ran into trouble and faced starvation.