Mr. Speaker, it is important for us to recognize that prior to the Conservative government making a change a couple of years ago, it used to be three out of five years. It was the Conservative government that ultimately made the change to increase the time one had to be living in Canada from three out of five years to four out of six years. In part, what this bill would do in qualifying for citizenship is bring it back to the way it was.
When this legislation came before us, I was here during that debate. From coast to coast to coast, there was significant opposition to it. Stakeholders were concerned, whether it was over the citizenship angle in terms of the time needed for qualifying or over the two-tier citizenship that was being created by the former government.
In good part, this bill would rectify a serious problem that the Conservative government created not that long ago. It was just a couple of years ago.
I wonder if the member would look at this in terms of the amount of resistance and opposition there was and agree that there was in fact a need to make the changes we have here today and that it is the right thing to do. Canadians ultimately support Canadian citizenship, and we want people to feel good about becoming citizens. There was never a need to make the change in the first place.