Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the National Post demonstrated utter contempt by publishing a hostile editorial directed at Quebec.
The editorial called on Ottawa to adopt a tough-love attitude toward Quebec and suggested that the Quebec chair at the Organisation internationale de la francophonie be taken away. It urged politicians to state unequivocally that there is no fiscal imbalance between Quebec and Ottawa. It also suggested that the government reinstate the re-enactment of the battle of the Plains of Abraham and, if need be, provide federal security for the event.
More outrageous still, in the same issue of the daily paper, the Conservative member for Edmonton East added his own fuel to the fire when he said that, without the battle of the Plains, a pivotal point in history, French in Quebec today would probably be like it is in Louisiana: a quaint cultural tourist attraction and possibly not even an official language.
It is a shame that the Conservative members and ministers from Quebec did not have the wherewithal to explain just how tactless the re-enactment—