Madam Speaker, I am proud to represent Madawaska—Restigouche, a riding outside Quebec where over 80% of the population is francophone.
Today, we are debating Bill C-3, which seeks to correct a historic injustice that has been deemed unconstitutional: the first-generation measure. We have a duty to adopt a balanced system to ensure that people who have genuine ties to our country can become Canadian citizens. They should not be unfairly deprived of their citizenship.
There are two different kinds of citizenship. There is citizenship by naturalization, for which we have an immigration system and criteria. However, in this case, we are talking about something else, and that is citizenship by descent, where a parent can pass on citizenship to their children. To that end, I think that Bill C‑3 provides a balanced and reasonable system.