Rideau Hall, Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Welcome, all of you, to this celebration of the very best in contemporary Canadian literature.

This is the 79th presentation of the Governor General’s Literary Awards, established in 1936 by my predecessor, Lord Tweedsmuir.

Of course, Lord Tweedsmuir was better-known to the world as John Buchan—and he loved books so much that he ended up writing 120 of them!

All of you are book lovers, too, so after this evening’s ceremony and reception, I encourage you to visit the library in the Monck Wing where you will find a copy of each Governor General’s Award-winning book dating back to 1936.

I have another recommendation for all of you this evening: try the food!

It’s delicious, and you may even notice it has a certain literary flavour to it.

That’s right, our talented chef Louis Charest and his team have prepared a few dishes with ingredients inspired by some of the outstanding books we’re celebrating tonight.

For example, we’ll be serving periwinkle with Acadian/Cajun-spiced mayonnaise.

That’s a reference to the creole cooking of the 19th century American South, the setting for The Gospel Truth, winner of the English-language children’s literature award.

Then there’s dessert: a wildflower honey and orange cream puff with Georgian Bay organic bee pollen.

This of course honours our English non-fiction winner: Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive.   

I also noticed there are no sandwiches on the menu tonight, which is no doubt Chef Louis’ way of paying tribute to the French-language winner in the children’s illustration category: Le voleur de sandwichs!

As you can see, at Rideau Hall, we pride ourselves on attention to detail!

Which is exactly what our laureates this evening have been doing, creating such remarkable books.

Tonight, in this Ballroom, we have with us some of Canada’s finest writers, translators and illustrators.

To you, I say thank you for your outstanding work, which helps us to the see the world and to imagine each other in new light.

I think of some lines by the late P.K. Page, who won this award in 1954.

In her great poem Planet Earth, she wrote:

“It has to be made bright, the skin of this planet / till it shines in the sun like gold leaf.”

Your books have “made bright” the subjects and themes you’ve tackled, giving readers access to whole worlds. Nature, society, individual experience—you have made “gold leaf” of them all.

Together, your works highlight the great breadth and depth of Canadian literature being written today in French and in English. They illuminate who we are in so many ways.

And just think about that: how many nations in the world celebrate literary achievements in two official languages?

One of the wonderful things about these awards is that your books were chosen from among hundreds of contenders by a jury of your peers—other talented writers, translators and illustrators.

They know what it takes to craft a great book, and they recognize excellence when they see it. So I’d like to thank the jury members for their close and careful reading.

I’d also like to say a special thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts, for its constant support of writers and artists in this country, including through the administration of these awards.

Let me also offer thanks to the publishers who, in a challenging market, make these great works available to us. Without you, this celebration would not be possible.

And not least, I thank all of the readers in this room and out there across Canada, who understand the value of Canadian literature and its sheer, page-turning brilliance.

Thank you all, and once again, my thanks and congratulations to our laureates on this deserved recognition.