Mr. Speaker, I will not take long. I could not let the rubbish spouted by my friends in the Bloc pass once again. Most importantly, I wanted to support, with vigour I hope, my colleague from Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey and his important bill.
A bill can be said to be not important, but when the Bloc talks on and on about recognition and symbols and tries to claim for themselves as a Quebec horse the French Canadian horse that has been proven historically to be the Canadian horse, we have problems.
I do not know what the interpreters will do with this one, but let me put it this way: the Bloc is blathering again. They said that all my colleague wanted to talk about was national unity and that, in the end, he had started another flag flap.
A lot of things go on in Rimouski. They still do not know whether Céline Dion is a Quebecer or a Canadian, and the same goes for a breed of horse.
And the PQ, the Bloc's head office, finally decided during the last general council, that it was absolutely necessary to have a resolution recognizing the French Canadian horse as the only breed in the world that is part of Quebec heritage. The avowed objective was to act before the federal government. Bill C-454 seeks, how shocking—to quote an article written in Le Soleil by my friend Michel David on Thursday, April 22, 1999—recognition for the national horse of Canada. One can see the reason for this sense of urgency.
If there is one inane debate within Bloc Quebecois, it is the one on identity. It never fails. They always try to find some issue and turn it into a flag flap. We should be proud that a French Canadian horse is a symbol of Canada.
Canada includes Quebec and the rest of the country. There are French Canadians everywhere in Quebec. Again, they are trying to cut themselves off from symbols and say that it is only in Quebec that worthwhile things are happening.
As a Quebecer, a French Canadian and a Canadian, period, I fully support my colleague, because I think it is important. We need symbols, and we need to recognize them as such.
It is through recognition that we begin to solve problems. Once again, they are making a big fuss and saying “No, no, it is a Quebec symbol”.
We should unanimously support the hon. member in saying that the French Canadian horse is the national horse of Canada.