Mr. Speaker, on Sunday a great citizen of Lanaudière will be celebrating his 75th birthday. Father Fernand Lindsay, founder of the well-known Festival international de Lanaudière and still its artistic director, has just announced the program for the 26th season, which will comprise 25 performances starting June 27.
Father Lindsay was honoured with the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts at the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards ceremonies this past November, for close to half a century of sharing his passion for classical music with a multitude of young, and not so young, residents of Lanaudière and other parts of Quebec.
Appointed director of the Jeunesses musicales de Joliette in 1957, and founder of the Festival-Concours de musique de Lanaudière in 1962, Father Lindsay also created the Camp musical de Joliette, before starting the Festival d'été.
Father Lindsay, you have enriched the musical and artistic scene of our region and of Quebec as a whole, and we hope you will continue to do so for many more years. Happy birthday.