Prime Minister's address at Banquet de la Francophonie

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Thank you very much.

President Ryan, my esteemed Parliamentary colleagues, Mayor Hill, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for your warm welcome.

I am pleased to be here in Embrun – the heart of Francophone Ontario – to celebrate the accomplishments and the leadership that make your communities proud and strong.

I’m told that this is the first time a Canadian Prime Minister has given a speech in this region since Louis St-Laurent delivered an address in Casselman.

Before going any further, I’d like to congratulate Graham Fraser, our Commissioner of Official Languages, for the Ordre de la Francophonie de Prescott et Russell that you are awarding him this evening.  It’s a well deserved honour. On behalf of Canada’s New Government, let me just tell you, Graham, how much we admire all the hard work you’ve done to help the official languages flourish throughout Canada. 

I would also like to acknowledge Josée Verner, who is here with her family this evening. In her capacity as Minister of International Cooperation and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages, Josée has worked hard over the past year. As the Minister responsible for CIDA, she has overseen the work done by our soldiers and our humanitarian personnel in Afghanistan to rebuild and develop this country – an essential mission for Canada and the world. When she couldn’t be found in Kandahar or in Kabul or at the Sommet de la Francophonie in Bucharest, she was crisscrossing the country to visit French-speaking groups such as yourselves in her role as Minister for the Official Languages. 

I have to tell you that the person most responsible for my presence this evening is none other than your MP Pierre Lemieux.  He has worked tirelessly to get me here, just as he has worked tirelessly to represent the interests of the people of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell in Ottawa.

Also with me this evening is another great Franco-Ontarian, another dear colleague of mine, the Member for Ottawa-Orléans and one of the deputy speakers of the House of Commons, Royal Galipeau.

Josée, Pierre and Royal are key members of Canada's New Government.  They're part of a team that has been making good on our commitments, delivering real, tangible benefits to hardworking taxpayers, their families and all Canadians. We applaud their efforts in serving their fellow Canadians.

Ladies and Gentlemen, our team is composed of dedicated Canadians from all over the country. One of the things I’m most proud of is the chemistry that our team is developing. Some of the members of this team were born in Canada, others elsewhere; some hail from the East, others from the West; some speak French, others English.  We are well aware of a fundamental truth of Canada’s history: Canada came into the world in French. 

The first people to call themselves "Canadians" were French settlers who built their first community initially on the banks of the St. Lawrence on our Atlantic coast, and then across the country. That’s why I start my speeches in French.

British descendents were added to the mix as the generations went on; this led to conflicts between these two great powers, but in Canada we replaced conflict with cooperation. Thanks to the emergence of other voices, like those of great Canadians such as John A. MacDonald and Georges-Étienne Cartier.  Both these men and their colleagues were farsighted. They saw their importance and seized the opportunity to build a new relationship of mutual respect between two cultures that, in the Old World, were still tearing each other apart.

Today’s Canada – the one we know and love so deeply – is a testament to their vision. And flourishing Francophone communities such as yours in Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Alberta are living proof of their success.

Well before official languages laws were passed, communities like yours had built institutions and networks that helped you develop your potential. Networks built first and foremost around the most important institution there is: family, followed in ensuing years by churches, schools, universities, hospitals, businesses, media and the other institutions that make French-speaking communities so vital. You were able to mobilize yourselves for all these institutions.  The way I see it, the battle for the survival and development of the French fact in Canada was waged and won in communities like Embrun, Alfred and l'Orignal!

Thanks to the determination of people like you, in your desire to pass along your culture and your language to your children, in your efforts – hand in hand with your neighbours – to build solid Francophone associations, and in your determination to stand up for your rights, including the right to be recognized and respected as one of the founding peoples of Canada.

On the world scene, this mutual enrichment of two languages and two cultures in one country is Canada’s signature piece, and one of our most precious assets. You can scarcely imagine how much people like you have enriched Canada.

Canada's success as a country lies in the foundational strength of its values, the fundamental decency of its citizens.  We're building a society in which it shouldn't matter who you know or where you're from, but rather, what you've accomplished and where you're going.

And so, we have created one of the most diversified, harmonious and civilized societies on the face of the earth, a society in which Neil Bissoondath – a Trinidadian immigrant of Indian origin – can earn a living as a French teacher in Quebec City and become a leading light in the world of English-language literature. 

A society in which Nancy Huston, an Anglophone from Calgary – a city I call home – can win the Fémina award, one of the most prestigious literary prizes in all of La Francophonie.  A society in which a Francophone born in rural Ontario by the name of Paul Desmarais can become a leading figure in Canadian and international industry, and in which a Francophone born in Saskatchewan by the name of Jeanne Sauvé can become the first woman to hold the post of Governor General. 

Upwards of 5 million Canadians now speak both French and English, and the number keeps growing. Our government is committed to supporting bilingualism, and to supporting the minority language communities across the country where bilingualism is a fact of everyday life.

That’s why Pierre, as a member of the Committee on Official Languages, has crisscrossed the country to take the pulse of many of your communities – the first time this has been done in a quarter century.

That’s why our new government is supporting Ottawa’s Cité collégiale, along with its campus in Hawkesbury. 

And that’s why we’re also supporting the French-language programs of universities like the University of Guelph. 

That’s why we’ve renewed the funding for the Eastern Ontario development program, a program that will help you create jobs and opportunities for the people of this region, and that’s why we’ll always be there to support the efforts of your community groups. In French-speaking communities, be they in Embrun, or Caraquet, New Brunswick, or St-Boniface, Manitoba or Bonneville in my home province of Alberta, we are taking action, just as we are acting in the best interests of all Canadians.

After just over a year in office, and despite being in a minority situation, I'm very proud of our government's records of achievement. 

During the last election, we promised real change. One year later, I can proudly say, as Prime Minister of Canada and Leader of the Conservative Party, that we have kept our word. And we shall continue to keep our word.

We took things in hand, because the integrity of our federal government had been compromised and faith in our democracy was shaken.  We cleaned house, for real. 

We took action to rebuild public trust with the historic anti-corruption reforms of the Federal Accountability Act.  We need to continue reforming our federal institutions, to make them more accountable, more democratic, more representative. 

That’s why we want to establish limited terms for the Senate. We want to shorten Senators’ terms from a maximum of 45 years to 8 years. I joke that the other 37 years are for the Liberal Senate to pass the bill, because this bill, which is all of two paragraphs long, has now been debated by the Liberal Senate for 10 months. 

Which is why we want to push forward our other reform – to make future Senators elected by the people they are supposed to represent in the Canadian Parliament. Where Canadians were paying too much in taxes, and hard-working middle-class families and senior citizens were being squeezed, we made tax cuts – genuine tax cuts. We delivered on our promise to cut the GST from seven to six per cent. By taking 650 000 low-income Canadians off the tax rolls all together, we returned 20 billion dollars where it belongs: in the pockets of Canadian taxpayers. 

Last Monday, our budget laid out the steps we’ll be taking to offer taxpayers tangible benefits through a guarantee to lower taxes. From now on, as the federal government pays down our national debt, it will be required to use the interest savings to cut personal taxes. Our government has now paid down over 22 billion dollars in debt. 

In the 2007 Budget, these funds have been used to finance pension income splitting for seniors. And for families, we are ending the marriage penalty and introducing a new $2000 tax credit for each child 18 or under.

In addition, the 2007 Budget has restored Canada’s fiscal balance thanks to a 39 billion dollar transfer over seven years. The provinces will now have the resources they need for infrastructure and to offer Canadians the quality social programs they deserve.

And Budget 2007 has also increased funding for official language minority communities. These new and additional funds will total 30 million dollars over the next two years. 

Where Canadians looked out at gang, gun and drug violence, and worried about the safety of their streets and the security of their loved ones, we tackled crime for real. But ladies and gentlemen, it’s not about wasting billions of dollars on a registry that hurts farmers and duck hunters.

And because raising a family is a daily challenge, we are earmarking $1200 a year for each preschooler, and not for other politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists or so-called experts.  We’ve offered a real choice to the real experts – and their names are Mom and Dad.

Where farm families struggle with rising costs and subsidized competition, we have freed up over 4 billion in additional funds for Canadian farmers. For example, two weeks ago we announced a substantial investment to help farm producers cope with rising production costs. We will continue to do everything in our power to defend the interests of our producers, including our dairy producers. 

We defended supply management at the WTO negotiations and we’ll soon be entering into negotiations with a view to restricting imports of milk protein concentrates. 

Having seen greenhouse gas emissions rise by 27 per cent during the previous Liberal administration, we are in the process of a concrete, realistic plan to combat climate change and to clean up, protect and promote our environment. Our approach seeks a balance between environmental protection and a healthy economy.

Everything we do is intended to make Canada stronger, safer and better. 
Internationally, we are working to restore Canada’s credibility and influence, because Canadians want to see their country play a leading role on the world stage. They want Canada to act and assert its leadership in a manner consistent with our values and our interests. 

That’s why our government has emphasized our founding values – freedom, democracy, human rights, rule of law – and replaced empty words with concrete actions to assert our sovereignty in the Arctic. And that’s why we are playing a decisive role in the United Nations mission in Afghanistan and, most important, rebuilding Canada’s armed forces. 

To sum up, ladies and gentlemen, that is how our new government is building a stronger Canada, a safer Canada, a better Canada, a Canada that owes its success to upstanding and hard-working Canadians such as yourselves. A united country, a respected country, a country that serves all of its citizens and the world, a country where Francophones are helping shape our history, our identity and our future across this great land. Thank you once again for doing me the honour of inviting me here this evening.

I appreciate it. Thank you very much, have a great evening, and I hope to see you soon.

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