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Why, so soon as French Canadians, who are in a minority in this House and in the country, were to organise as a political party, they would compel the majority to organise as a political party, and the result must be disastrous to themselves.

There would probably be less of a frenzy among the French public.

I can't think of this country without Quebec. Je parle francais. And when I think about being a Canadian, speaking French is part of it.

This country must be governed, and can be governed, simply on questions of policy and administration and the French Canadians who have had any part in this movement have never had any other intention but to organise upon those party distinctions and upon no other.

French are what they are without excusing themselves to be.

You know, I would like to ask to the other parts of Canada to respect the minority of the French Canadians.

If Quebeckers want Jean Charest, well, they can choose him. It's never a winning formula to divide Quebeckers.

In Paris, AIDS was dismissed as an American phobia until French people started dying; then everyone said, 'Well, you have to die some way or another.' If Americans were hysterical and pragmatic, the French were fatalistic: depressed but determined to keep the party going.