Mr. Speaker, I recently attended the citizenship ceremony in Lethbridge when 70 people became new Canadians. They came from many different countries, and every person had a story, but one thing was common among them, they had all chosen to become Canadians.
Among them was the Walsh family who had fled Zimbabwe with nothing but their suitcases after their house, farm and business were seized simply because the Walsh's were Caucasian.
New Canadians infuse fresh vitality to our national pride. Besides contributing skills to our economy and riches to our culture, they inspire us with a profound sense of gratitude. They know and remind us how lucky we are to be Canadian, where we can own property and enjoy the fruits of our labour, where we have freedom of speech and can worship according to the dictates of our conscience, where we can participate in politics and choose our government.
May we cherish these freedoms and use them well so Canada will continue to be a beacon to all the world.