Madam Speaker, the gold digger clause was invented after the Boer War. That is how far back it goes. Like my friend from North Island—Powell River, I have constituents who are going through this. I have been working on this with her predecessor, the former veterans critic for the NDP, Peter Stoffer, a great MP for Sackville—Eastern Shore in Nova Scotia.
I want to tell one quick story. Chic Goodman, a war hero, joined up and lied about his age. He joined when he was 15 years old in the Second World War. He volunteered and was part of the liberation of the death camps in the Netherlands. He was honoured and got the French Legion of Honour award, but he married Nancy when he was 60. He kept asking me if I could fix this. I told him that all I could say was that we had the support and a letter from Bill Morneau, former finance minister, saying he was going to fix it now. I asked him to please not die because this injustice had to get fixed. He died at 96 and Nancy is a widow. By God, this has to get fixed.
I am moved by the words of the member for North Island—Powell River. Every member in this place should be moved by this. I have asked for two things of the Minister of Finance in the fall economic statement: fix this and fix the unfairness to single seniors.