Good afternoon.
Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
Bilingualism and federal jobs have transformed my life. At the age of six, I was enrolled in the long immersion program. In grade 10, I entered the international baccalaureate program, which, unfortunately, was offered in English only. After high school, I had little opportunity to speak French and I felt that I was slowly losing my ability to speak the language.
A phone call changed everything. I was hired to work at the Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site. That is where I found my love for French again and I regained the confidence to speak it.
During those three years, I talked to hundreds of francophones, many of whom came from all corners of the globe. Not only did those conversations make me more open-minded, but they also inspired me to travel across Canada and around the world. After I received my first university degree, I wanted to have a French experience and I went to Paris, France, and elsewhere in Europe. I was often an informal ambassador when I talked in French about Canada and its complex history with the people in those countries.
As a student, I also had the great honour of living with 10 other Canadians and of working at the Vimy Ridge memorial centre. Thanks to various cultural exchanges, I developed a better appreciation of our country's diverse regional perspectives. At Vimy Ridge, perhaps because I lived with two Quebeckers—an anglophone and a francophone—I became fascinated with Quebec and its history. Later, still driven by this passion, I moved to Montreal to finish my master's degree. My thesis dealt with a riot against conscription in Quebec City during World War I. Being the first anglophone from western Canada to write about this topic, I am proud to have provided a unique perspective to the writing of history.
All those opportunities, which shaped me as a young man, allowed me to develop as a student, as a Canadian and as a citizen of the world.