We are very glad to hear it. You're the first to tell us so.
You're right when you say we like to call a spade a spade. Something else we like to do is advance the cause of the French fact in Canada and the English fact in Quebec in a non-partisan way.
In a very short period of time, you summarized nearly the entire history of the Official Languages Act. It was quite fascinating.
You talked about demographics, which brings me to a question I wanted to ask Mr. Séror as well.
We can have the most well-written piece of legislation in the world, but it has to take account of the reality. My background is in the private sector. When I want to implement something in my business, I take the necessary steps. If I wanted to do the same thing in my current capacity, here in Ottawa, at the rate things move, I would be dead long before ever seeing any results.
As soon as the legislation sets out a particular objective, it must be possible to ensure that objective is respected. You mentioned the importance of supporting a Canadian francophonie that is “strong, stable and demographically resilient”. If that objective were incorporated into the act, how could we achieve it?
It is all well and good to use the finest wording in the act, but we have to be able to apply the principles therein.
How exactly would we uphold that principle and achieve the objective?