Article content continued

Mr. Presseau said he would be open to a national holiday, but wonders why the country would adopt a Quebec occasion.

It’s a democracy, they can disagree. But I think we can totally show respect to a portion of our citizens without any type of disrespect to another group

“I can’t see the rest of Canada accepting it. I don’t think they would,” he said.

Mr. Lapointe disagrees, saying the holiday is already celebrated by French Canadians in other parts of the country, such as northern Ontario and the Maritimes.

Nothing in the bill, C-432, mentions anything about Quebec politics, he said.

Mr. Lapointe, who says he is a federalist, said while some people see St. Jean Baptiste day as a sovereigntist event, for many others it does not represent that.

“It’s a democracy, they can disagree. But I think we can totally show respect to a portion of our citizens without any type of disrespect to another group,” he said.

The idea behind the bill stemmed from a marathon debate in Parliament over legislation to send striking Canada Post workers back to work last June, which kept French-Canadian MPs like himself from celebrating the holiday. This legislation would not let that happen again, Mr. Lapointe said.

The NDP has tried to pass a bill like this twice before. On June 15, 2010 and June 23, 2011, Claude Gravelle, the MP for Nickel Belt, Ont., tabled C-540 and C-262, respectively, both virtually identical to Mr. Lapointe’s bill.

“As a Franco-Ontarian, my family and I have always celebrated this important holiday,” Mr. Gravelle said at the time. “French Canadians from across the country have also expressed support for this important holiday.”

With time allocated in the House to consider private member’s bills very limited, few of them ever make it to law. Mr. Gravelle’s bill never made it to the second reading.

Does Mr. Lapointe think his bill will pass?

“We’ll see,” he said.



National Post