Yes. Planning is moving forward in earnest, I can assure you. As a matter of fact, those witnesses who came before this committee with regard to 150 were not alone in wanting to speak out on this. As you know, this is a good opportunity for Canada.
Maybe I'll start it off this way. When you look around the world at other countries that have celebrated their 150th birthdays, there's actually no template. Some countries do nothing because they don't see 150 as a big deal. They celebrate the 50th, the 75th, the 100th, the 200th, or maybe the 250th or so. Some countries have taken their 150th and have done a very big celebration out of it.
In Canada, I think we're in a position to take the opportunity—and it would be wise for us—of the 150th to do something special. As I said in my prepared remarks, we're the second largest country in the world in size, but the 34th largest in population, so when we do have a moment to celebrate something that is special and pan-Canadian in consequence, we ought to take it.
This is a country that has a lot of great regional celebrations and regional moments, but I don't think people in my community understood the importance of the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. Also, in the development of our celebrations of the recognition of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, we found that when you get outside southwestern Ontario there is a diminished understanding of the importance of the War of 1812. We wanted to elevate that into a pan-Canadian understanding.
Therefore, there are a lot of groups around the country that might have some great local ideas that could be drawn to national attention for others to copy. We want to go around and talk to Canadians, like we did with round tables for the road map, which, I can tell you, were incredibly beneficial to my personal understanding and my department's appreciation of the great work that is being done around the country on official languages.
Equally, we want to make sure that, for Canadians who have great ideas on the 150th, their voices are heard as well. In the new year, I am going to be doing round tables around the country on Canada's 150th birthday, which will lead to our larger proposal on how we celebrate the 150th.