I had three points. Regarding the first, Mr. Samson took the words out of my mouth. I will not repeat everything he said.
However, I spent the weekend reading everything ever written on this topic. We learned that an independent recruitment firm—to summarize what Mr. Samson said—contacted people who were invited to submit names, or their own name. So that was done, until they came up with a short list. I don't know how many candidates there were, nor their names, except for those that were mentioned in the papers.
We hear about this process, but in the media they never talk about the mechanics. How did they arrive at 72 candidates? How did they get from 72 candidates to a short list? We don't know. Perhaps the 72 candidates were all excellent, but we wound up with one. I have not heard anyone say that she does not have the skills to do this work. That is all I had to say about Mr. Samson's comments, which I wanted to support and add to.
My second point is the following. I am speaking on my own behalf, because this is my opinion: no one here around this table has political allegiances when we talk about protecting official languages or minority communities. No one here, since I've sat on the Standing Committee on Official Languages, has shown any political colours, really.