MONCTON, N.B. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed Monday the appointment of former New Brunswick premier Bernard Lord to head a committee on bilingualism.
Harper made the announcement in Moncton, a bilingual community where Lord was born and raised. He represented the area in the provincial legislature, including while he was Conservative premier from 1999 to 2006.
The prime minister said "it's hard to imagine anyone more qualified'' than Lord, who is flawlessly bilingual.
"Mr. Lord is a proven leader, experienced consensus builder, and throughout his experiences and actions, the very model of a bilingual and a bicultural Canadian,'' Harper said.
Lord, 42, will travel to seven cities across the country during the first two weeks of December to speak to members of English and French minority communities and provide advice and guidance to the federal government.
He will report to Officials Languages Minister Josee Verner is January.
"His findings will help the government ... provide language programs and services that serve the unique needs of minority communities,'' Harper said.
Lord lost the election in September 2006 and resigned as Tory leader in January.
Harper has won plaudits in Quebec for his insistence in starting all of his news conferences or announcements in French.
But in his first report, Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser said the prime minister's decision to scrap the court challenges program, which provided funding to minority groups to challenge government policies in court, showed a "lack of will'' to defend the national conversation in Canada's two founding languages.
Fraser said the government violated the Official Languages Act by eliminating the program because minority language groups are no longer getting access to the courts to guarantee their linguistic rights. Ditching the program was "the product of a seriously flawed decision-making process.''
Sources said the report struck a chord with Harper, who began looking for a way to respond to Fraser's concerns shortly after his report was released in May.
The Conservatives are hoping to add to the 10 ridings they won in the overwhelmingly francophone regions off the island of Montreal.
The court challenges program was created in 1978 to help minority linguistic groups defend and guarantee the services they need in the language of their choice. It funded legal initiatives by anglophones in Quebec and francophones outside of the province.
It was later expanded to other minority groups seeking equality, and was costing taxpayers almost $3 million a year. Some Conservatives applauded the elimination of the program because they found it incongruous that the government would fund left-wing interest groups to attack bedrock conservative values.
Fraser also said it was very important that federal ministers and appointees be able to speak and understand both official languages to better serve Canadians.
"I find it difficult to understand how one can play a national leadership role without being able to communicate with all Canadians,'' he said.
