Madam Speaker, I think the members opposite are applauding a little too soon. I think if they examined this with more objectivity, they would recognize-as I do and, I hope, as all Canadians also do-that Pierre Elliott Trudeau did a lot for francophones across the country and that he was one of the greatest prime ministers of the history of Canada, if not the greatest.
Yes, Mr. Trudeau struck a serious blow to the separatists, and maybe that enrages the member opposite because Mr. Trudeau did a very good job as Prime Minister, and that offends certain members across the way. They would have preferred that he failed. They would have preferred a weaker Prime Minister, but that is not what they had. They had great men like Mr. Trudeau and the present Prime Minister and other very good prime ministers, especially from the Liberal Party.
As we all know, Mr. Trudeau became a member of Parliament at the time the Laurendeau-Dunton report was made public. He was the Minister of Justice. He was responsible for the introduction of
an official languages act. Once more, this enrages the separatists because Mr. Trudeau was too successful in this regard, it destroys the separatist agenda. Mr. Trudeau later recognized the contribution of the multicultural community. I acknowledge it and am delighted by it.
The member opposite claims the multiculturalism policy is identical to the official languages policy. I am sorry, but since the member has been here for a long time, he should know that that is totally false.
What official status does the multiculturalism policy have in this House or elsewhere in the federal institutions? None, and that is a well known fact, but nonetheless, the ethnic communities deserve to be promoted. I think that the hon. members from the Bloc and their friends in Quebec City should be very cautious when they talk like that about ethnic communities. I remember some statements on ethnic groups made by Mr. Landry, Mr. Parizeau and others. But we will not get into that.
Mr. Trudeau also worked very hard for the recognition of linguistic minority groups. We know that it is thanks to his government that groups like the French Canadian associations of my own province, the Acadian federations and others received public funds to ensure the development of French language minority groups. I am happy that the hon. member for Longueuil reminded me of the excellent work done by Mr. Trudeau. That allows me to speak about it in this House. Maybe that was not what the hon. member intended when he mentioned Mr. Trudeau's name, but the fact is that it allowed me to thank him publicly for his excellent work.