Mr. Speaker, I congratulate our new colleague on his election and I am surprised, as well as happy, to learn that he is here because of the 1995 referendum. As a result, unlike certain members of the preceding Parliament, he understands that the Bloc Quebecois members who are here today are not an anachronism and are not completely out of touch with Quebec realities. In Quebec, 49.4 percent of the people voted yes, and the member was sufficiently impressed by that percentage that he decided to come to the House to debate the question, just like us.
I would like to ask a question to our new colleague, a question that comes from the conclusions of the previous speaker, who said that Quebec did not have the monopoly on French culture in Canada since there are francophones outside Quebec. There is an important semantic distinction to be made, here. The culture of Quebecers is not French, but “Québécoise”, just like the culture of Acadians is Acadian. There are also other French language cultures elsewhere, authentic French cultures.
Did our colleague, who did come to Quebec, realize how authentic la culture québécoise is, since it is found nowhere else in the world and since it is characteristic of the way our people has evolved over the past 400 years?
I would like to hear his comments. He is in a position to know. He has lived through the referendum. I will listen closely to what he has to say.