Absolutely. For those who enjoy popcorn I will give you a bit of a caution. If you plan on speaking, make sure you drink a lot of water after you've had popcorn because popcorn will irritate your throat if you have to speak for any length of time.
Having said that, I believe that at the end of the day we want to recognize that I was kind of denied the opportunity to be able to ask what I thought were some really good questions to Mr. Shory. I wanted to get a better understanding of what it is that he was really wanting to accomplish. Maybe that was in fact quite doable. We might have to make some amendments to the legislation, and that's the reason I recommended to my caucus colleagues that we support the legislation.
But there are some genuine concerns that really and truly need to be answered by Mr. Shory, and because the minister approached the bill in the fashion that he did, that opportunity was lost. It might not be permanent. There might be another opportunity for us to be able to go through that clause by clause. If that happens, great. Maybe Mr. Shory can go over some of the thoughts that I've expressed in regard to the issue of who should be eligible to have their citizenship time residency dealt with. That would be wonderful if he were able to do that. Maybe he could provide a detailed comment as to each one of those points.
If I were a government backbencher, or even a minister within the government...everyone needs to at least understand some of the points that I've raised, Madam Chairperson. Those are legitimate questions. Imagine, if you will, you're a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and this bill were to pass as is. What we're saying is that if you serve for two years in the military, you will be able to apply for your Canadian citizenship. If I were a member of the RCMP, I would feel a little uneasy about it. I might wonder why the government doesn't care about my profession. Is my profession not an honourable profession? I could imagine the discussions that would take place between the two professions, Madam Chair.
Don't think for a moment that this wouldn't happen, because I can tell you it would happen. I understand and I appreciate the relationship, as I said earlier, between those two great Canadian entities. That's why the committee process is a very important process—