Mr. Speaker, I was amazed to hear the hon. member for Outremont mention, at the very end of his remarks, that the European Community was taking the same road as Canada. I find that quite extraordinary, since the great strength of the European Economic Community lies in the fact it is made up of sovereign states.
I would like the leader of the government, the Prime Minister-because this is certainly not something the hon. member for Outremont would do-to go before the French National Assembly and tell the people of France that they are taking the same road as Canada and that, ten years from now, France will no longer be a sovereign state. I would like to see the Prime Minister stand in front of the Bundestag, in Berlin, and tell the Germans that their country is on the way to losing its sovereign status. I would like to see him do the same thing in Westminster. It is really double talk. I imagine that the Prime Minister would be advised against making such a speech. Perhaps he would come to that conclusion himself.
Let us take a look at what serious international figures have to say, people like Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Secretary General of the United Nations, who told us in Montreal that there are two main tendencies in the world today: one toward nations and peoples forming into countries and the other toward the same countries getting together to form larger economic entities. That is what is happening in Quebec and what the Liberals were objecting to during the debate on free trade. They ran the 1988 election on opposing free trade in the name of Canadian nationalism. All is very well to talk about nationalism in reference to Canada, but in reference to Quebec, it becomes a mortal sin. I find this double talk rather strange.
These people-even the Liberal members of the National Assembly in Quebec City, and in their case it is shameful-refuse to recognize Quebec as a nation. And yet, they are sitting in the Quebec National Assembly. As far as I know, national, as in National Assembly, refers to a nation. If Quebec were not not a nation, but a society, then it would have been called the Societal Assembly!
This name was voted by a Premier who headed the Union nationale-National Union. So, I would like to know what the hon. member for Outremont is saying exactly. Is Quebec currently a nation within the Canadian federal system or is it not a nation?
If not, will he commit to advise his Liberal colleagues in Quebec City to change the name of the Quebec National Assembly? It is sheer nonsense to call it that if Quebec is not a nation! I would like him to comment on that.