Prime Minister Rutte, Prime Minister Trudeau, distinguished guests, especially our veterans, ladies and gentlemen, it is for us a great honour and a great pleasure, Prime Minister, to have you with us. We have, as you have said, so much history between our two countries.
A long time ago, between 1946 and 1968, 170,000 immigrants declared Dutch citizenship upon entering Canada, and now we have over a million. They came here to build a life and help to build our country.
There is so much we have in common, as we have seen across the years, and we are deeply grateful to you, sir, for coming today to further cement the wonderful bond between us, for this is not simply the visit of a visiting head of state, this is more like a family visit.
This is like visiting with your cousin. Your are always welcome in Canada.
In this venerable chamber, we have had a number of distinguished visitors over the years. In fact, it was in 1988 that Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands spoke in this chamber, but you, sir, as the Prime Minister mentioned, are the first Dutch prime minister to speak here.
This is a special moment for us. There is no doubt that it will make the close bonds that exist between our two countries even stronger.
[Applause]