Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member on his appointment as immigration critic.
There was no flip-flop. What there is is a remarkable record of bringing new Canadians to this country and successfully integrating them. Last year we welcomed the largest number of newcomers ever to our shores: half a million newcomers and 250,000 permanent residents. We have announced for 2009 a planning level of 245,000 to 260,000, the only developed country in the world to be maintaining immigration levels.
We intend to keep that and we are proud of our record, unlike the Liberals, who in the early 1980s recession cut immigration levels in half.