Topics

Overview

This is the full list of thirty topics generated from the corpus. For each, I have included: the automatic “label” for the topic (the top eight words); a plot showing the weights of the top ten words in the topic; and a plot showing the weight of the topic in each of the speeches from the corpus.

Some points to note in interpreting the plots:

The x-axis for the top ten word weights is not consistent from topic to topic, while the y-axis for the topic’s weight in each speech is consistent from topic to topic. The latter thus allows comparing between topics, while the former is presented more for interest’s sake.
The bars in the speech plots are colour-coded by the governing party that wrote the speech: red for the Liberals, blue for the Conservatives.
At the bottom of many of the speech plots, you’ll see that many of the red or blue dots representing speeches are faded. This means that that topic is not present within that speech.

Annotations

I have selected a handful of topics that are notable for one reason or another and written annotations on them (on separate pages, linked next and below each topic in the full list). While going through the full list of topics can be interesting, my analysis is primarily contained within these annotations and within my more focused discussion of results.

Here are the topics I annotated:

#3: 2010 Olympic Games
#6: Social policy
#8: Economy, women, environment
#10: 1973 oil crisis
#11: Jobs following the 2008 market crash
#17: New government rhetoric
#18: Unique vision of Canada
#20: National cooperation
#21: Private sector rights
#24: Shifting parliamentary formality

Full topic list

age months nature seventies present pressures wealth period
isolation states programme provision fishermen understanding increasingly challenge
olympic athletes winter step planning unnecessary stories gold

(annotation)
prosperity committee constitution unity reforms conduct understanding established
secretariat cabinet sides reviewing commissioner judge broaden duration
health communities children aboriginal economy century quality want

(annotation)
loans weeks consumers start vote alberta vigorously simple
plan economy values women environmental history environment great

(annotation)
houses wheat aggression continued lines project province accepted
oil food transportation prices price inflation countries increase

(annotation)
jobs protect businesses introduce steps victims recession industry

(annotation)
canada canadians canadian new work world country continue
net announce east organization sales modernization referendum component
languages particularly gas strategies equal implementation speaking encouraging
society great consider life today importance recent responsibility
recovery additional voluntary funding agreements small operative fishery
trust stronger middle things child elected accountability transparent

(annotation)
families hard north act safety sovereignty freedom free

(annotation)
conflicts traditions enacted red satisfactory recurrent licensing weapons
national cooperation objectives consensus effort benefits commonwealth reconciliation

(annotation)
private initiatives sector rights process individual unity information

(annotation)
economic development federal measures program policy employment economy
middle east western universities events seamen museum contribute
act asked provide amendments provincial national assistance approve

(annotation)
cost confederation dollars companies story paying employers moment
solid gases compensation administration joined institution penalties supply
confident emerging fairly liberalized implications advances evolution relation
increasing millennium tradition june successfully recognize gives multi
housing requested works terms constitute safeguard harbour statute
disabilities regional municipalities foundations committee decade housing establishing

Topics

Overview

Annotations

Full topic list

age months nature seventies present pressures wealth period

isolation states programme provision fishermen understanding increasingly challenge

olympic athletes winter step planning unnecessary stories gold

prosperity committee constitution unity reforms conduct understanding established

secretariat cabinet sides reviewing commissioner judge broaden duration

health communities children aboriginal economy century quality want

loans weeks consumers start vote alberta vigorously simple

plan economy values women environmental history environment great

houses wheat aggression continued lines project province accepted

oil food transportation prices price inflation countries increase

jobs protect businesses introduce steps victims recession industry

canada canadians canadian new work world country continue

net announce east organization sales modernization referendum component

languages particularly gas strategies equal implementation speaking encouraging

society great consider life today importance recent responsibility

recovery additional voluntary funding agreements small operative fishery

trust stronger middle things child elected accountability transparent

families hard north act safety sovereignty freedom free

conflicts traditions enacted red satisfactory recurrent licensing weapons

national cooperation objectives consensus effort benefits commonwealth reconciliation

private initiatives sector rights process individual unity information

economic development federal measures program policy employment economy

middle east western universities events seamen museum contribute

act asked provide amendments provincial national assistance approve

cost confederation dollars companies story paying employers moment

solid gases compensation administration joined institution penalties supply

confident emerging fairly liberalized implications advances evolution relation

increasing millennium tradition june successfully recognize gives multi

housing requested works terms constitute safeguard harbour statute

disabilities regional municipalities foundations committee decade housing establishing