Speaking at a banquet for some five hundred francophone in EMBRUN last March, interim federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff told his audience exactly what they wanted to hear: vocal support for francophones living in Ontario.
To lure quebecois votes, he told them, en francais:
- “If you asked me where I stood on the subject of bilingual signs in Russell, I’d respond without equivocation, ‘I am for it’,”
- Speaking both official languages is “the essence of being Canadian.”
- “When people tell me our two official languages are an obstacle or a burden, I will answer they represent an extraordinary human, social and economic asset.”
- He chided sovereignists for claiming that French is disappearing across Canada. Said he: “This isn’t true. The goal of Canada is to protect linguistic duality throughout the country.”
- “The Quebec government should be involved in protecting French throughout the country alongside the federal government.”
- He said that while France lost on the Plains of Abraham, francophones “…won the war”. “Yes, it was a tragedy … but what happened after is incredible. You are the result.”
- Claimed that “Canada’s linguistic diversity is a beacon for the world.”
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