Thank you. Thanks for presenting and thank you for the welcome.
I grew up in rural Nova Scotia, and until I was about 14 I had kind of a one-nation concept of what Canada was. I was taught that John A. Macdonald somehow failed to have a unitary style of government and that we've had some compromise. Then through the sovereignty association referendum and the Constitution talks in 1982, I developed what was kind of a standard two nations concept of what Canada was.
It wasn't until 1993, with Meech Lake, when I was back at university, that I was introduced to the idea of a three nations concept of what Canada was, and I think I definitely subscribe to that now. It was an evolution in my thinking, and I think what you're presenting here today is what a three nations concept of Canada looks like in practical terms.
For example, in translation in the House, we have English and French readily available, and that reinforces the idea of two nations, but when we talk about a three nations concept—the third nation, of course, being very many nations of indigenous origin—how do we accommodate that? How do we reflect that in our institutions? I think that's why these discussions are so important. It's because that's what we're doing here. We're discussing how to have a Parliament where we talk about our future and how that would come through in our day-to-day activities here.
Therefore, I really thank you for this experience today. It is fulfilling what I hope we can achieve as a country.
I have a question to you. How do you see this proceeding, and how likely do you think it is that we'll actually achieve this equal recognition of founders of Canada?