MONTREAL -- Are you sitting there? If you're asking Becancour-Nicolet-Sauret MP Louis Plamondon, the answer is "oui."

Plamondon became the longest-serving French-speaking member of the House of Commons in Ottawa on Sunday.

The Bloc Quebecois MP has taken his seat in the commons for 36 years, two months and 25 days.

“Allow me humbly, on behalf of the Bloc Quebecois, to salute his total commitment, close, often intimate, to his fellow citizens and to the sovereignty of Quebec," said Bloc leader Yves Francoix Blanchet in a tribute in parliament. "My colleague has won the trust of his constituents eleven times because he is close to people, listening and ready for anything for the citizens and businesses of his part of the country. I have great confidence that he will succeed in convincing them a twelfth time."

Plamondon was first elected as a Progessive Convervative under the Brian Mulroney government but left the party during the Bloc exodus led by Lucien Bouchard following the Meech Lake Accord failure.

Plamondon along with Bouchard founded the federal separatist party in Plamondon's Sorel-Tracy riding.

Wilfrid Laurier holds the record for longest ever serving MP with 44 years, 11 months from 1974 to 1919, and he served continuously without break for 41 years and two months.

Should Plamondon win a 12th mandate (he intends to run), he will pass Laurier and the four other English MPs with longer uninterrupted service.