Before the visit ended and the delegates returned to Canada, many warm friendships had been made. Joseph Howe, soon to oppose Confederation strongly, made a speech in which he said: "I am not one of those who thank God I am a Nova Scotian merely, for I am a Canadian as well . . . I have looked across the broad continent and studied the mode by which it could be consolidated . . . and why should union not be brought about? Is it because we wish to live and die in our insignificance?"