Mr. Speaker, members are reminding me about the Statute of Westminster and World War II, and so it went on to 1947 when our first citizenship act was passed. Canadian citizenship builds on a noble tradition.
It draws on the pride of French Canadians, those who settled and stayed in New France, who believed in the virtue of their system of government and the power of their institutions under the reign of Louis XIV.
It draws on the pride of first nations aboriginal peoples in their place on this land, on its lakes, on its rivers, in this physical space; the care they have always taken for these places; and the respect they have always shown for its natural heritage. It builds on centuries of belief that, as Bennett said, with the privileges of citizenship go the responsibilities. These are responsibilities that Canadians exercised in the War of 1812 and responsibilities that they exercised on a grand scale after that debate a hundred years ago, as Europe marched to war and Canada marched with it. It has evolved and changed in every generation. It has kept up with the times. It has been, in many respects, ahead of the times.
I just had the pleasure of meeting with the UN high commissioner for refugees, Antonio Guterres. Everyone has heard that he is here in Canada, travelling across the country, continuing to consider our country an example of the best behaviour in its treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. All of that generosity is based on the firm foundations of citizenship that we have and the foundations of our privileges and responsibilities as members of this society, those with the right to vote, those with the right to sit in this place, those with the right to carry that passport proudly around the world.
We on this side do not take the responsibility of citizenship lightly. We on this side, with the vast majority of Canadians, understand that, from 1977 to today, 37 years is a long time to go without a thorough root and branch reform and modernization of our institution of citizenship. That is why we are here tonight. That is why we have given days of debate to second reading in the House. We have given nights to this debate as well, in committee. That is why we continue to listen with interest to the other side, in the hope that we will hear something new and not just puppets on the other side somehow repeating the hopelessly misguided statements of the Canadian Bar Association or a couple of witnesses who came before committee who really do not understand what citizenship in Canada is today. We have not heard anything really original from the opposition so far. We look forward to hearing that. There is still time. There will be lots of us on this side of the House to listen.
In the meantime, let us remind ourselves what the bill would do. It would make our processing of citizenship more efficient. It would reinforce the value of citizenship. It would strengthen integrity and remove fraud from this program. It would protect and promote Canada's interests and values. For everyone in the House, because we all have constituents in our ridings who are new Canadians, immigrants, and permanent residents, what matters most is processing, in the short term.
Citizenship in our country has never been more popular than it is today. We have one of the highest naturalization rates in the world. It may be the highest in the world. At 86%, it is well beyond what Australia, the United States, the U.K., and other immigration countries have. It has gone up in our government's time in office, as we have raised the bar slightly in terms of knowledge and language requirements for citizenship in Canada, because we think there should be an attachment—