Successive governments have told us about the importance of linguistic duality since the Official Languages Act was implemented.
I am going to be very frank with you, as I usually am, by the way. I think it is time to walk the walk. We have to do what we need to do as a society to ensure that people across the country acknowledge linguistic duality.
One message has to be understood: linguistic duality does not mean that everybody has to be bilingual. The more bilingual people there are, the better it will be. However, we must nevertheless be realistic. Linguistic duality makes it possible for me to live in French at home in Saskatchewan, while enabling my neighbour across the street not to speak a word of French if that is his choice. However, he has to respect my choice to raise and educate my children in French.
That is linguistic duality. It is not necessary for everyone everywhere to be bilingual. In an ideal world, yes, we would all speak seven languages, like Mr. Chisu.