Mr. Chair, as I indicated before, I see a large part of my function as acting as a sort of ambassador with the cultural communities on behalf of the government to ensure that we have our ear to the ground, that we are listening to the preoccupations and priorities of the communities. That is why virtually every weekend I have been travelling especially to the larger cities where there are large concentrations of new Canadians. I have attended, I gather at the latest count, over 100 events with cultural communities to represent the government and to listen. I am proud of that work.
Let me give one example. On one weekend in February I attended events with the Armenian community in Toronto, the Hungarian community in Montreal. I was with the Jewish, Sudanese, Hindu and Sikh communities in Winnipeg. This was all on one three day weekend.
I attended a meeting on immigration policy with the Sikh community in Toronto, with the Somali community in Toronto and attended a Ukrainian social service organization dinner to bring greetings.
I attended a meeting of Sikh farmers in Abbotsford and finally attended the 20,000 person gala celebration of the great social service organization called S.U.C.C.E.S.S., founded by the Chinese Canadian community in Vancouver.
When I meet the people from all of these communities, I feel tremendous pride as a Canadian.