Strengthening Cultural Ties with Louisiana

The past week I was part of an important milestone for our province, especially for our Acadian people who share such a strong cultural tie to Louisiana through their common language and historic experience. There is a special relationship there that I didn’t fully understand until my visit this week where I had the honour of signing a cultural agreement with Louisiana’s lieutenant governor Billy Nungesser that will allow better opportunities for sharing cultural and tourism experiences among our Acadian/Cajun people. Throughout New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette I also toured museums, plantations and swamps, strengthened many partnerships, and had great fun cutting the boudin (sausage) as special guest to Lafayette with the mayor for the opening of the Festival Acadien-Creole. Those folks sure loved the taste of New Brunswick we offered them inside our Pavillon des Acadies with fresh oysters and lobster rolls. We told people the best ways to #explorenb, Acadian artists like JP LeBlanc and La Patente performed, and we invited everyone we met to visit our beautiful province.