Official Languages Committee on Oct. 30th, 2012

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Well, if you want to start a debate—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We created le Haut-Canada and le Bas-Canada—

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

No, there are legal texts from the French monarchy that talk about Canada. People from Boston wanted to conquer Canada too.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

But formally, the name, la nomenclature—

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Formally it starts when it is in English. You're right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Anyway, sorry for the interruption.

Go ahead, Mr. Dion.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Thank you. I will use my five minutes.

It seems very important to me that in this list, you also keep in mind the need to respect Canada's linguistic duality. If there are failures, even if you pull out all the stops in 2017 for the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the atmosphere would already be ruined. So, I presume that you are well aware of that.

I would now like to go back to Mr. Gourde's comment. Mr. Gourde pointed out that there are bellyachers who complain about everything, all the time. That is true. There always are, but it doesn't mean that sometimes they aren't right.

As I listen to Ms. Michaud and Mr. Dionne Labelle, what worries me is that they are echoing a generally held view that exists outside of the francophone world. It is also present among anglophones. I know that you are public servants and that this is a very political question, but we need to see how to correct things. I am concerned.

I think 1812 should indeed be commemorated. I think that it was an important event and in any case, by nature, I am always in favour of commemorating historical events. That was an important moment. The Americans did indeed want to conquer Canada to punish the British for all of the irritants they imposed on them at the time. They did not succeed in conquering Canada, and we had to talk about it.

However, something did not quite work. You may not agree, but I saw it on the ground. It just didn't work. People complained about seeing publicity about 1812 during the Olympics. They could not see what war had to do with the Olympics. They had comments along those lines. The transplant did not take. It remained a government effort.

I would have one suggestion to make. Would there be some way of showcasing someone besides the minister, because the minister's credibility as a historian is rather weak; perhaps some people who have expertise in the area and could have some credibility? I am thinking of historians. They would not necessarily try to put today's attitudes into the minds of the people of that time. That was to some extent the feeling people had given the government's approach. That is unfortunate, because I do think that 1812 could have captivated the population more.

You will not agree with me. You are going to tell me that there are a lot of indications that this did captivate the population, but I will not believe you. As a politician who travels across the country, I can tell you that this did not work in any province I went to. It continued to be perceived as a government effort. Moreover, governments in Canada are never as popular as they are unpopular. They are always more unpopular than popular. There are always more people against them than for them, even when they have a majority. The very last thing to do, with celebrations of this type, is to identify them with the government and with the political party in power and its views. To summarize, there is certainly something politicians need to do.

On your side, you must be aware of that because otherwise, you are going to lose a lot of players. You will have to be very proactive to reach people again after that.

[Nicole Bourget]

Thank you for your comments, Mr. Dion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Merci, monsieur Dion.

Merci à nos témoins. Thank you very much for your testimony.

We're now going to the second item on the orders of the day for our committee, which is the consideration of the motion from Monsieur Godin, who has given us notice of motion....

I see Mr. Wilks waving at me.

Yes, Mr. Wilks.

[David Wilks, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move that we move in camera for committee business, please.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

All those in favour?

(Motion agreed to)

[Proceedings continue in camera]