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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 228

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 3, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 228 - Oct/3/23
The Speaker
  • Oct/3/23 1:35:06 p.m.
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Hon. members, I want to humbly thank the House for doing me the great honour of selecting me as Speaker. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge a number of individuals and, indeed, all of you. Let me begin with the hon. member for Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel, the dean of the House of Commons, who has had a lengthy career in the House of Commons. He has been here for 39 years; that is a great inspiration to us all. For the younger members who came in 2021 and those who arrived quite recently following by-elections, you have before you a man who is an inspiration to us all, a man who with close ties to his voters, to his people. He has served in the House with great integrity since 1984. I congratulate him. He may not remember this, but I came here in 1988 as a parliamentary page, and I had the pleasure of serving him water and delivering him messages on paper. He was an upstanding gentleman then, just as he is, even more so, now. I hope I will have the chance to beat his record and be in this chair for longer than five days, at least, but we will see. I will start with one afternoon. I would also like to thank my hon. colleagues who let their names stand to become Speaker of the House of Commons. Let us all give them a huge round of applause. They are amazing Canadians. They have served this House, especially the speakership team. The two assistant deputy speakers and the Deputy Speaker in particular have served the House very well and with great honour and integrity. I hope to continue to count on your sage advice and your support as we move forward for the rest of this Parliament. I really look forward to working collaboratively with all of you. Thank you for the applause. I know that, in politics, there are only two times when people give strong applause and are happy to see you: the day you arrive and, of course, the day you leave. The Speaker, to use the old hockey analogy, is nothing more than a referee. If there is one thing I know, it is that nobody pays good money to go see the referee. They go to see the stars: you, the players on the ice. People go to see the men and women who have long been demonstrating their talents in the minor leagues, who practised at home with their families, and who have since found themselves here in the House. My role as Speaker is to assure you that the rules and regulations will be followed so that you can engage in what I hope will be respectful, friendly, sincere and passionate debates in the House. As I said earlier, in my speech to all of you, respect is a fundamental part of what we do here. We need to make sure that we treat each other with respect and that we show Canadians an example, because there can be no dialogue unless there is a mutual understanding of respect. There can be no ability to pursue arguments, to make points be heard, unless we all agree to extend to each other that sense of respect and decorum. Therefore, I am going to be working hard on this, and I need all of your help to make this happen, because this is the place where hard debates will happen.
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