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House Hansard - 113

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 19, 2022 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 113 - Oct/19/22
Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)
  • Oct/19/22 3:47:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I hope I can get through this. All of the tributes from all parties have been heartfelt. I first met Bill Blaikie in 1987. I have been honoured for 35 years to call him a friend and to love him as a colleague and as a fellow Christian warrior for the things we believe in. I knew Bill since 1987. Obviously I was not elected when Bill was here. In 1987, Bill was the environment critic for the New Democratic Party. I was a senior policy adviser in the office of the federal minister of the environment, and that is how I had the amazing honour to get to know him and work with him. I cannot tell the stories of all the adventures over the years. I am going to try to keep this brief; I will try hard. We had adventures. We marched together in the battle in Seattle, chanting, “Turtles and teamsters, together at last.” We were tear-gassed together. What is more binding than that? That is where I first met Rebecca, by the way. We were also together at the first meeting of the World Trade Organization in Singapore. I was there at the first 1988 Robbie Burns night dinner when Speaker John Fraser, with whom Bill Blaikie was a grand friend, joined Bill. I can picture Bill to this minute marching in and piping in the haggis. There was something about Bill Blaikie's legs in a kilt, and I thought, “How could he be related to oak trees?” In any case, as we have heard, he was a bear of a man with a heart as big as he was. I want to tell members one thing from being an eye witness to his talents. He had skills as an orator in this place, an enormous warrior heart, an ability to stay focused and never give up and, of course, a talent in parliamentary alchemy. I will tell one brief story. In 1987, the hot topic was trying to save the southern third of Haida Gwaii from clear-cut logging. Our champion, in the seat now held by the hon. member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley, was another dear friend we lost too soon, Jim Fulton. We were all working, and the minister of the environment no less than everyone else, to save this area. There was an opposition day motion that came forward from Jim Fulton. In those days, opposition day motions were non-votable, but we had the whole day devoted to the campaign to stop the logging and protect this area, working in concert with the Haida Nation. At one point in the proceedings, Bill got up and said to the Speaker, turning to his colleague John Fraser, who was just as much of an eco-radical as the rest of us, that there seemed to be a lot of unanimity in this place. No one had spoken against saving the area, although there were many against it. He then moved that, by unanimous consent, at the end of the debate the motion be deemed voted on and passed unanimously. There was a fair amount of uncertainty throughout the room at that moment because no one had ever tried that before. John Fraser, as Speaker, then said the words “do we have consent?” The Liberal environment critic was Brian Tobin. The minister, Tom McMillan, was in the room too, as were, of course, Bill and Jim. There was unanimity. It was deemed to have passed unanimously at the end of the day. Miles Richardson, then president of the Council of the Haida Nation, told the media that the great spirit had hovered briefly over the House of Commons that day. Those were things Bill Blaikie could do because he was universally respected and he knew his procedure. If Bill thought we could get away with it, well who knew? We did. We have heard from many members here today about his many talents and skills and where he drew his strength. Yes, it was from family. However, the social gospel is something that we do not hear about very much in this place. I went to find some of the things Bill said about it. He related that when he finished theology school he “found the prophetic tradition within the Bible, a tradition of challenging the ruling elite.” He called it this, and I proclaim the same: faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour. Bill clarified that he is “our saviour from the idolatries...in the world.” Then Bill pointed his finger at the market as the “be-all, and the end-all” to which “everything is sacrificed”. Bill knew we could not serve God and Mammon at the same time. I once heard him being interviewed on CBC Radio's Tapestry, and he said that we always hear about the Christian right; let us hear it for the Christian left. The social gospel is with us because Bill will always be with us. I will never, ever stop being grateful for the chance I had to be his friend and to get to know the hon. member for Elmwood—Transcona and his sister Rebecca. I do not know Jessica and Tessa as well as I should, but I thank Brenda, his wife, for sharing him with us all these years. It is the greatest loss, but one can cherish a life well lived. I just hope heaven was ready for Bill, but we will leave that for now. He is, was and will always be a prophetic voice in Canadian politics that says we do not leave behind the downtrodden, we do not forget what it is to say we have faith and we believe that miracles are possible. Eternal rest be with him, oh Lord, and light perpetual shine upon him. May he rest in peace.
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