Mr. Speaker, I would like to add the voice of British Columbia to this debate. I am neither a francophone nor an anglophone. I am originally from Italy; this makes me a member of the multicultural, ethnic community. But I speak both official languages, as well as Italian.
I must say that British Columbia is a young province, just turning 125 years old this year. I must also say that it differs from other provinces, as someone pointed out, in that it is a community of communities, some of which are much larger than the francophone community.
Still, I would like to make a few comments. I will comment on this. For instance, when I travelled to Montreal before the referendum, I was told: "What are you doing here? This is not your country". But it was my country, too.
I would also like to say that, during the referendum campaign, my colleagues from the Bloc Quebecois showed little interest for communities outside Quebec. Indeed, I was one of the first to raise the matter of francophone minorities outside Quebec during the referendum campaign, because their party was just not interested. I think that now they are trying to show to Canada that they care, but I have never seen their party show any interest in the matter before.
On the subject of assimilation, I would like to say that, naturally, in British Columbia, there is some assimilation taking place because we have so many different communities, but we also have 60,000 francophones across the province, who form a very vibrant and very active community.
I just spoke to them. I spoke to the Fédération de la francophonie last week. I worked with the francophone community in British Columbia for 20 years and I must say that it is one of the most organized communities, and has a very good rapport with the federal government. Yet, again, my colleagues from the Bloc Quebecois were nowhere to be seen when the time came to sign an agreement with the government. I was there though. I was there to help, along with other Liberal members, and I have worked long and hard for this agreement to be signed. Now there is a very good agreement in place. And francophones are pleased. Just the other night, their report was tabled.
I might add that, yes, we are not always happy with what happened in the past, but what can I say? This is a young country. My country of origin, Italy, is a much older country than Canada, but just the same, Italy has a past we are not always too proud of. We have to work together. I do not think that separating or getting out of Canada will make a difference. I think we must work together to maintain two main languages in Canada-as well as minority languages-two languages that are very popular around the world, especially the French language.
This is just a comment I wanted to make. It was important for me to make this comment because I have not heard any other speakers from British Columbia and I think I know British Columbia and its francophone community pretty well.