Rules
Misattributed Canadian Prime Minister Quotes: A Correction List
Misattributed Canadian prime minister quotes are common. This list names fakes, real wording, and how to check lines against Hansard and Library and Archives Canada.
What to take away
- Most fake prime ministerial lines fail one testno Hansard page, no archival file, no dated newspaper column.
- The Pierre Trudeau misquote about the state having no place in the bedrooms of the nation is a paraphrase, not a quotation.
- Attribution errors can sit unnoticed for decades because they are repeated in good faith, not invented.
- A correction takes minutes once you know which Canadian record to open first.
- Quotation right and copyright are separate questions, and both matter if you print the line.
Why Canadian political quotes go wrong
A misattributed Canadian prime minister quote usually starts as a summary. A reporter condenses a speech, a columnist sharpens the wording, and the sharper version travels further than the original. Nobody sets out to fabricate. The error is one of compression.
Canadian primary records are also harder to search than American ones. Hansard is split by Parliament and by chamber. Library and Archives Canada holds papers that are often described only at the file level, not the page. A reader in Winnipeg or Sherbrooke cannot resolve a doubtful line in one search.
US misquote lists do not help here. They index presidents, not prime ministers, and they miss the bilingual record entirely. A quote that appears in both English and French has two chances to drift.
The correction list
| Attributed to | Common wording | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Pierre Trudeau | The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation | Paraphrase of a 1967 comment, not a verbatim quote |
| Pierre Trudeau | Just watch me | Verified, said to reporters in October 1970 |
| Wilfrid Laurier | The twentieth century belongs to Canada | Widely repeated, wording varies by source |
| John A. Macdonald | I do not care for majorities | No parliamentary or archival source located |
| Lester B. Pearson | Peace is not a destination | No verified source located |
Treat the last two rows as lines to avoid until someone produces a page number. The middle rows are usable with care.
How to check a line in five steps
- Search Hansard for the sitting year, both the House of Commons and the Senate, using the shortest distinctive phrase.
- Check Library and Archives Canada for the minister's fonds and the relevant speech file.
- Search the Canadian newspaper archive for the week the line supposedly appeared.
- Compare the English and French records, since a paraphrase often shows up in only one language.
- Ask the Parliamentary Library or the relevant provincial legislature library for a citation before publishing.
If step five returns nothing, publish the line as a paraphrase or drop it.
Five Steps to Check a Quote
- Search Hansard for the sitting year
- Check Library and Archives Canada fonds
- Search the newspaper archive for that week
- Compare English and French records
- Ask the Parliamentary Library for a citation
Example: the bedrooms line
Pierre Trudeau said something close to "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation" in December 1967, while he was justice minister, not prime minister. The sentence was reported and then reshaped into a cleaner version. The cleaner version is what circulates.
The correction is not that the idea is false. The correction is that the wording is a paraphrase and the office was wrong. A short note fixes both. This is the same discipline that quotes by era misquotes sets out for older material, where one wrong date pulls a whole quotation out of shape.
A quote with no page number is a rumour with good manners.
What the archives actually hold
Library and Archives Canada holds ministerial fonds, but description depth varies. Some files are listed by box only. Hansard is more reliable for anything said in Parliament, and it is free to search. Provincial Hansard matters too, since premiers get quoted as prime ministers by mistake.
For a line that was never spoken in a legislature, the newspaper record is the fallback. Canadian newspaper archives are patchy before the 1900s. A missing page is not proof of a fake, but it is a reason to hold the line back.
Pre-Publication Confirmation Checklist
- Confirm the office held on the date
- Confirm the chamber and sitting day
- Confirm the English and French wording
- Confirm the copyright status before reprinting
The copyright question is separate from attribution. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office publishes a guide to copyright and public domain that applies to older speeches and printed collections.
Where misattribution hides for years
The failure that stays hidden is the plausible paraphrase. It hides because it sounds like the speaker, matches a known position, and appears in a book with a footnote that points to another book. Nobody checks the second book.
This is why a correction list beats a single fact check. One entry per line, one status per entry, and a date. Readers can then see which lines are safe and which are on hold. The same method works for business quotes misquotes, where a paraphrase often gets a sharper edge than the original ever had.
Misattribution as a general pattern is well documented, and the Wikipedia entry on misattribution describes how a plausible line attaches itself to a famous name. The United States National Archives has run the same exercise on a fake Abraham Lincoln quotation, which shows the archival verification method in practice.
Quoting rules for Canadian publishers
If you print a corrected quotation, keep the original spelling and punctuation, including Canadian forms such as colour and centre. Name the source in the text or in a note. Where the wording is uncertain, say so in the sentence rather than in a footnote.
For longer extracts, check the fair dealing provisions in the Copyright Act before you publish. A short quotation with attribution is normally fine. A full speech reprinted without permission is a different matter, and the Canadian Copyright Act sets out the relevant terms.
