The teenage Nobel Peace Prize winner who famously survived a Taliban bullet in 2012, delivered an enduring message of hope, perseverance and inspiration in the House of Commons.
Malala Yousafzai addressed a joint session of Parliament following a ceremony making her an honorary Canadian citizen.
It was during an eloquent, touching and thoughtful speech to the House that the 19-year-old Yousafzai , known to all and sundry these days simply as ``Malala'' , very nearly brought down the house.
She took the podium to the first of several sustained, thunderous ovations, acknowledging the fact that her initial trip to Canada in 2014 was essentially cancelled by a gunman's rampage through the very building where she now stood.
Malala said the man who attacked Parliament Hill called himself a Muslim but he did not share her faith or the faith of one-and-a-half billion Muslims, living in peace around the world.
Instead, she said the gunman ``shared the hatred'' of the man who attacked the Quebec City mosque in January and the same hatred as the man who shot her.
Malala sang Canada's praises throughout, even offering a subtle jab at the shifting political landscape in the United States.
She said ``Welcome to Canada'' is more than a headline or a hashtag, and she hopes Canadians will continue to open their hearts and their homes to the world's most defenceless children and families -- and that our neighbours will follow our example.
To the children of Canada she said that even a child's voice can be heard around the world, and they do not have to be as old as the young prime minister to be a leader.
Malala urged the federal government to put its upcoming presidency of the G-7 to good use and make girls' education a central theme and help fill the global education funding gap.
Today's pomp and pageantry comes more than two years after an initial plan to honour Yousafzai was interrupted by the gunman who took the life of a Canadian soldier and stormed Parliament Hill before dying in a hail of gunfire.