From the "Not my dog" department, comes this example of Peter MacKay [Left, not exactly as illustrated] and his fractured French recently in the House of Commons.The foreign affairs minister apparently couldn't grasp the meaning of a question from Bloq Quebecois member Vivian Barbot.
Hilarity ensued.
Mrs. Vivian Barbot (Papineau, BQ):
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Canadian Heritage answered with a firm "no" when asked if cuts had been made to theatre and dance troupes. Yet, those troupes are telling us otherwise, that they have in fact suffered cuts.
Will the Minister of Foreign Affairs please tell us whether or not cuts have been made to these troupes?
[English]
Hon. Peter MacKay (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, obviously, we are involved in this with 36 other countries. This is a deployment of troops that is involved in interesting and important work to provide security for the development of the work that is undertaken. If the member wants to be a little more specific, perhaps she could provide us with that information.
[Translation]
Mr. Maka Kotto (Saint-Lambert, BQ):
Mr. Speaker, the question was not about military troops. It was about theatre, dance and music troupes.
I ask the question again: will the cuts to the public diplomacy fund affect the international tours of dance, music and theatre troupes, yes or no?
...
Thank Heavens no one asked about minkeys.
You know, the Chimpanzee minkeys.
Or the behms.
The exploding kind of behms.