I consider myself not anglophone or francophone, but "franglophone." – Marie-Hélène Courtemanche-Boyle et G.J. Robert Boyl

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Your responses:

I consider myself, and even more so my children, not anglophone or francophone but "franglophone" (english and french). I am proud to be a "franglophone" Canadian as is my wife, Sylvie and our two children, Lindsay and Scott. This thanks in large part to Mr. Trudeau who believed so much in Canada, especially as a united, bilingual nation. Our family was on Parliament Hill until 11:00p.m. Sunday night to pay our respects to Mr. Trudeau and would not have missed it.

I am truly proud of my fellow Canadians who responded these last few days to pay their respects to Mr. Trudeau, thanking him for his contribution and for making each and every one of us proud to be Canadian.

Nous, moi, ma femme, Sylvie, et mes enfants (Lindsay et Scott) sont vraiment fier d'être des canadien (ne)s "franglophones" grace à Mr. Trudeau. Je suis confiant qu'il y a plusiers, plusiers d'autres.

Bob McRaé
Aylmer, Quebec

As a third generation Canadian whose paternal grandparents emigrated from Poland 60 years earlier but never learned English, growing up in Winnipeg in the early '60s meant that never would I be able to converse with those grandparents. The then-prevalent stigma attached to DPs – Displaced Persons, a mean-spirited anachronism from WWII, thankfully put out of use – was so great that my parents deliberately taught me none of the language my dad spoke with his mother and father. To spare me being branded as some dreaded DP I was raised as a unilingual anglophone – not that the word anglophone was used back then &3150 because fitting in amongst all the Wonder Bread Kathies and Debbies of the day was what counted most.

By the time I turned 10 in 1970, however, French classes had arrived at McLeod School, and I was keen. Blame it on Pierre.

When I turned 16 in 1976, the morning after René Levesque was elected I recall raising my hand when our history teacher asked who was afraid that this could lead to Quebec's separation from Canada. I remember being practically in tears. Later, in French class, it was all we talked about, albeit mostly in English.

That summer, the year Montreal hosted the Olympics, I boarded an eastbound train filled with some 100 rambunctious exchange students from all over Manitoba, destined for homestays with families from all over Quebec - Quebecois we learned to call them, not Quebeckers. I'd never heard of Bagotville or Chicoutimi, let alone Lac St-Jean, but that's where I was headed, the willing recipient of Trudeau Government-sponsored largesse, some hardly inexpensive programme aimed at promoting the lofty ideal of bilingualism.

Granted the trip was a month-long party, but struggling both to understand and be understood by des Bluets pure laine left one indelible mark. It made my regret over not learning Polish all the greater, my resolve to improve my French all the stronger. If I was never to understand the language of my forebears from another country, at least I would understand the language of my contemporaries from this one.

So, 24 years later, I'm here to report to that Trudeau's long cherished aim bore fruit. For a girl from Winnipeg whose father has sadly lost all of the Polish our family might reasonably have preserved had he felt unashamed 40 years ago to teach it to me, I'm so very pleased that the opportunity to learn French was accorded me. I'm now a fully bilingual federal public servant living in Ottawa. I spent years in Quebec, married a Quebecois, the school my child goes to is French. I worked hard at learning that second language and continue to work at perfecting it.

However proudly I still carry the Polish in my name, and indeed gave it to my children as their middle name, it's the French that I use and am privileged to know.

And for that Mr. Trudeau, I have you to thank.

Gratefully yours,

Allyson Domanski
Ottawa, ON

Looking at most of us, we incur debt in the form of a mortgage to provide a home for our families to grow and prosper. Eventually, most of the mortgages are paid off. Many of us have children. On one hand having children, clothing them, educating them, etc. is expensive. When we do not think just of money, the rewards in the form of the quality of life by having children out weighs the economic burden.

The same goes for a nation. Much of our debt was similar to a mortgage, to build a good place to prosper and grow. The expense may seem high, but like having children, the quality of life is greatly enhanced. Canada is a much better place to live since 1968 than at any other time in our country's history.

Au cause de M. Trudeau, la qualité de vie au Canada est très haute. Je suis fier d'ètre canadien. Je remercie, sincièrement, un société juste - un cadeau du Premier Ministre Trudeau. Je remercie la famille Trudeau pour partager ce bonhomme avec nous, les canadiens.

On sad point is that it is too bad that it has taken so many people who were critical of Trudeau's ideals and goals to realise only at this death what a large vision this man had.

Vive Pierre Trudeau! Vive le Canada - comme il faut.

Merci beaucoup
Robert Townsend

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