Ms. Laverdière, you raise a number of points. Let me try to answer as quickly as possible.
On the one hand, I would like to focus on what happened in 2008. The Italian authorities sent Ottawa a request for Canada to be one of the foreign electoral constituencies. We received that request a few days before the Cabinet discussions. The government of the day approved the implementation of a policy to not allow foreign electoral constituencies. However, it decided that Canada could be an electoral constituency in the Italian election one last time, since it was only a matter of days. So that was not an exception, as some insist.
On the other hand, you mentioned the unique Tunisian reality. I am glad you did, since it allows us to clarify the government's position on that extremely important and extraordinary election, which is about to take place. On September 21, the Canadian government sent a diplomatic note to the Tunisian authorities to specify that we fully agreed with and approved of establishing balloting stations for absentee voters at Tunisia's diplomatic or consular missions in Canada.
In addition, we even allowed a private location to be set up in Quebec City, so that Tunisian nationals, be they permanent or temporary residents, could also exercise their right to vote. We are currently discussing that with the Tunisian authorities. We sincerely wish to arrive at a solution that will enable Tunisian nationals to vote. We are confident that we will reach an understanding, while explaining that Canada cannot be a foreign electoral constituency in the Tunisian election—and it needs to be understood that this is a firm policy. We really hope to accomplish that.
I want to explain one more time why Canada, for its own benefit, wants a different policy from what some foreign governments have in place. What is a foreign electoral constituency? It is a voting district or riding whose boundaries are unilaterally determined by a foreign state—and this is the most important part—to include territory in Canada. The expression “extraterritorial electoral constituency” is often used. In this scenario, an elected candidate would represent people living or residing in Canada in a foreign legislative body. That foreign representative would hold a seat in a foreign legislative body, and his or her constituents would live or reside in Canada. We don't think that this kind of a situation is desirable. We have decided against this policy for reasons of social cohesion and national identity.
If I have any time left, I would like to raise another point about the French National Assembly. You are right to say that there is the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad, which is separate from the French National Assembly and the French Parliament. It is an assembly whose members are elected by French nationals abroad, and it advises the foreign affairs minister. However, that assembly holds no seats in the Senate or in the French National Assembly.