Mr. Speaker, our very esteemed colleague, the member for Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel, our friend, my friend, now holds the record for longest serving French-speaking member of the House of Commons. He has been a member of the House for 36 years, two months and 28 days today.
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois I want to humbly recognize his total commitment to his constituents and his close, often personal, relationship with them, as well as his commitment to Quebec sovereignty because he is the dean of separatists in the federal Parliament and he has all sorts of new friends. I said I make this statement humbly because, after all, I am talking on behalf of a party that the member founded in his riding of Sorel‑Tracy with Lucien Bouchard.
Adored and adorable, wise, but not overly so, my colleague won the confidence of his constituents 11 times because he is there for people, he listens, and he will do anything for the people and businesses in his part of the country.
I am confident that he will convince them to vote for him a twelfth time, and if he does, he will beat Wilfrid Laurier's century-old record. We will wait until just after that for Quebec to separate.
Congratulations. It will be a pleasure to continue writing history together.