Mr. Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary and I hope my behaviour in this House may be as dignified as his own.
As you know, Quebecers have long debated the two roads, and continue to do so. With the Bélanger-Campeau commission, they once again agreed to debate renewed federalism. Since 1990, this road of renewed federalism has seemed to be a dead end.
When we hear, as we did again this weekend, major political personages from the rest of Canada saying that the Calgary declaration is unacceptable to the rest of Canada, the implication is that, yet again, the road of renewed federalism is a dead end.
In this context, the road to sovereignty and partnership is the most credible alternative. It the most valid one for Quebecers and the one that will make Quebec a country that is open to the realities of the world and a player in the international community, desirous, to a large extent, of maintaining the economic and monetary union that the people and sovereign states of Europe, for example, have maintained while retaining their sovereignty.
To quote an internationalist you know very well, Emmerich De Vattel:
“Of all the rights that can belong to a nation sovereignty is doubtless the most precious”.
If sovereignty is precious to Canada, admit it—it is important to—so it is for Quebec.