Mr. Speaker, I constantly hear this question in my riding. I know it is a real source of irritation with Canadians in the riding of Prince George-Peace River. I suspect if we were to do a survey across the country we would find that people right across the nation find it offensive that they are required to document their lineage or history when they want to be classed as Canadians. They find it very demeaning.
That is why so many people will just put down Canadian, regardless of what type of form StatsCan may come up with. People are telling me they want to be classed as a Canadian. They are proud of their heritage and proud to be Canadian. This can be seen most predominantly with the new immigrants who came here recently and went through the process of getting their citizenship papers and becoming a citizen of Canada. Those people in particular do not want to be associated with the past. They want to be classed as Canadians. That is how they want to be thought of and treated. It is how they feel they should be treated when they apply for a job in the Canadian workforce.