The Montreal political economist Harold Chorney offers this translation of Guy Môquet's final letter, which Nicolas Sarkozy wants read to high-school students every autumn in France. Reader Jeremy Millard offered this attempt:

My dear, sweet mother, my little baby brother that I adore, my dear
father that I love--I am going to die! What I ask of you, especially my
dear mother, is to be courageous. I am, and I want to be as courageous
as those who went before me.

Sure, I would have liked to have lived. But what I wish for, with all
my heart, is that my death means something. I didn't have time to hug
Jean. I hugged my two brothers Roger and Rino [note: his
brothers-in-arms]. As for you, I'm afraid that I can't! I hope that
all my things will be sent to you--Serge can use them; I trust he will
be proud to wear them one day. To you, dear father, if I ever gave you
or dear mother any trouble, I praise you one last time. Know that I did
the best to follow the path you set out for me.

One last goodbye to all of my friends, to my brother whom I love
dearly. He should study hard so that one day he will become a man.
Seventeen and a half years old--my life was short, I have no regrets,
other than leaving you all. I will die with Tintin, Michels. Mother,
what I ask of you, what I want you to promise me, is to be courageous
and to rise above your pain.

I can't add any more. I'm leaving you all, all of you, mother, Serge,
dad--my child's heart holds you in its arms. Courage!

Your Guy who loves you.

Millard's source text omitted the p.s., which I would translate as follows;
"Final thoughts: You who remain, be worthy of us, the 27 who will die!" I suspect Sarkozy's fondness for the letter comes, in large part, from that last sentence.

Which leads to this question: Which relatively brief document should be read to Canadian high-school students every fall?
A colleague yesterday amused himself by terrifying me with thoughts of the CBC Radio One series that would be built around that question. The imagination reels. Here's Justin Trudeau, defending the Charter of Rights, while Steven Page from Barenaked Ladies wants it to be the FLQ manifesto. Jack Granatstein is adamant that it be Flanders Fields, while the
hot model from Battlestar Galactica is equally determined that it be Louis Riel's last speech at his trial for treason. Listeners, time to vote!

If it were my choice, of course, I'd demand that the kids buy a copy of Right Side Up. John Ralston Saul spent much of his time at Rideau Hall beating the drums for Lafontaine's letter to the electors of Terrebonne. But maybe you have a better idea. Anyone? Anyone?

UPDATE: I hope several more readers will suggest texts for the nation's schoolkids, even as I suspect it's a futile pursuit. The first two readers to write both named song lyrics: Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers, and Canada's Really Big by the Arrogant Worms.

Worthy suggestions both, to be sure, but surely there's some prose somewhere in our history that encapsulates something about the country?