I guess it's sort of some contamination between my various roles. We have a lot of undergraduate assistants, and we take very much pride in incorporating them in our projects. That is recognized by the research councils. We think, first of all, that it should be better recognized, not by the councils but by the peers themselves.
Second, it would be very important for us to be supported. To compensate for our lack of graduate and post-graduate fellows, we try to collaborate with other universities, but a lot of times we have to do that on our dime. If we could have some support built into the structure and the support we get through official languages funding—not necessarily just through research councils—to facilitate collaboration between francophone institutions, we could do a lot more with less.
To your question on successes for the Acadian federation, I think the strength of the Acadian federation is in its members. We regrouped regional organizations, so every part of Nova Scotia is covered by a regional organization. We also have provincial organizations that are sector-based. However, I think one of our real strengths is at the institutional level. We bring all of those members in together with our institutions as well. Our university and our school board are actually part of our federation, and it builds collaboration. I think our success really comes through our collaboration.
Another thing that we have.... I mean, we will challenge our governments in the courts, if need be, and we have challenged them, as have most francophone organizations. That's always a last resort, but it's sometimes a necessary one.
Notwithstanding that, we always approach our governments, be they municipal, provincial or federal, as willing partners. Essentially I think we're all in this for the same thing. We're just looking for a better community, a better province and a better country to live in, and we're trying to contribute to that. I think that's really our success in Nova Scotia.