Yes, moments like this, where we actually can get Canadians.... By the way, a member of Parliament from Brampton asking about the Bay of Fundy is a good thing. People talking about Canadian history and culture beyond their regions, and understanding and promoting that is a good thing, because it only unites the country.
I used to say this all the time...I don't know if it's true anymore, but it used to be true about 10 or 15 years ago when I gave the speech. It used to be true in Quebec that the younger the population, the higher the proportion of people who identified with the Bloc Québécois or the separatist movement. I always thought to myself that it was such a shame, because if anybody actually had the opportunity to visit across the country, if they looked out over the Chilcotin plateau at dawn or dusk, if they got to go to Gander, if they saw Cape Spear, if they visited downtown Toronto, and if they ate in a restaurant in Edmonton, they would understand the diversity of this country and they would say: “What are we talking about? Why in the world would anybody consider leaving the greatest country in the world?”
People don't have the resources to visit and travel this country as we members of Parliament do. It's a great privilege, by the way, as a member of Parliament, to get to understand and visit this country the way we do. So few Canadians have that benefit. Therefore, in turn, it comes to us as a responsibility to use institutions and the tools at our disposal as a government to make sure Canadians understand these things.
People should know about the Bay of Fundy and the tides, what they mean and have meant, and how gorgeous it is there, and they should be able to point it out on a map and talk about it. I think that's a good thing. I think this is something I'm going to be talking about more, certainly as we go to 2017, but also at the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of culture meetings coming up, and, going forward, to encourage them to adopt a more robust plan with regard to teaching history. It has to happen for the good of the country.
Not to be a political analyst, there's one thing that does concern me a little. People look at the House of Commons and say, “Oh well, the Bloc Québécois is down to four seats in the House, so I guess we don't have to worry about that.” Well no, these debates are cyclical. I think Canadians become alienated from one another when we become lazy about being proud of being Canadians, being proud of our institutions and regions, and talking about them to each other.
I don't think the political expression of May 2 can be taken as an expression of full success in defeating anybody's appetite for more regional politics or regional divisions. I think we should take this as a window of opportunity over the coming four years to take things like 2017 and breathe a new energy into patriotism across the country, to really seize the moment. This is how I would see it.