In fact, this line is so interesting that I will continue it.
Mrs. Adam, I fully agree that we have to be careful. I do not think that the member's intent was to send the message that we need to speak a language perfectly. That would make a lot of people uncomfortable.
When I was 16, I was in the North of Ontario in a small town called White River and I was trying to learn English. I can assure you that I spoke very broken English at the time, and I don't always speak it well now. Today, however, I am a member of Parliament and I represent a significant English-speaking community in my region. I think that people know my English is not always easy to listen to, and sometimes my French can be as well. However, they accept those faults and appreciate the fact that I speak the language. When someone makes the effort to speak a second language, I truly appreciate that.
Otherwise, we could simply get rid of all the Acadians because our French is occasionally quite pitiful. Perhaps, though, we are the ones who speak good French, since we still use works like “icitte”, which comes from old French. Sentences like “Viens icitte, pis prends l'broom, pis ramasse la dust dans l'corner”, in which at least half the words are English are still current in our part of the country. That is our culture; that is who we are. This is how we have been speaking for 400 years.
I am using up time, but it is my time to ask questions and to make comments.