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House Hansard - 314

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 21, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 314 - May/21/24
Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)
  • May/21/24 3:36:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to add the voices of those in the Green Party across this country and myself, as someone who was so honoured to know and love John Fraser as a friend, a colleague and a fellow warrior in the battle to save this planet. He would raise a glass and say, “To the conspiracy, to the conspiracy to save the planet.” The Hon. John Fraser brought into that conspiracy his ability to pull people from all sides of the political spectrum into one space. I can remember his close friendship with the former member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley, Jim Fulton, NDPer and dear friend of John Fraser, the two of them and Bill Blaikie, another Scot, my goodness. I was a bit younger, and I was so honoured to be in the Speaker's chambers when they would get a bit in their cups with the whisky, and I remember fondly John Fraser, arm in arm with Jack Harris from St. John's East, and Bill Blaikie from Winnipeg, and dear Jim Fulton, singing a bit of Robbie Burns. It was John Fraser who introduced to this place the Robbie Burns night dinner. In one of the obituaries now up online, the Right Hon. Kim Campbell, the former prime minister, recalls well when John Fraser tapped her to do the “Reply from the Lassies”, which, by the way, she delivered in French with a Scottish accent. I still do not know how she pulled that off. In reflecting on John's time as Speaker, I have to say we have lost some of the love. There used to be a lot of love in this place across party lines, no matter what. We would see it in the way he pulled people together, time and time again. Some people would be surprised that a Progressive Conservative was on the front lines of the battle to stop acid rain, on the front lines of those who wanted to stop the logging of trees that were over 1,000 years old up in Haida Gwaii, and on the front lines of people concerned about the destruction of the natural world and the loss of our wild Pacific salmon. As an angler and a flyfisher, he really knew what it meant to stand in a river and cast the line out for those fish. He was part of nature. He did not see it as some separate environment. He was in it. He cared deeply, and he would say, “If you're a Conservative, it means you want to conserve. You don't want to destroy. If you're a Conservative, the natural world is a place you respect and love.” Well, I could go on and on, but I will try not to. I remember when they were trying to talk him into running. By the way, some of the members will know this story, but most are too young. One time Jim Fulton smuggled a dead salmon down one of his trouser legs, in a Glad bag, and managed to get it across the floor and slap it on the desk of Brian Mulroney, the former prime minister, before anyone could stop him. Jim was trying to talk John Fraser into running for Speaker. John said to Jim Fulton, as Jim remembered it, “Jimmy, if you had pulled that trick and I was Speaker, you wouldn't have been recognized in this place for six months.” Fulton said, “Oh no, Fraser, you wouldn't have done that to me.” He said, “Oh yes, I would have done that to you.” He was still elected Speaker, and he was able to quell the noise and chaos in this place, as Garth Turner recently reflected in an online tribute, with a voice barely above a whisper. He commanded the respect of everyone in this place, because everyone knew that John Fraser was a man whose integrity was above reproach, who knew his parliamentary principles and who basically, through the core of his being, understood fairness. He would stand up for MPs such as those in my position, although I had never had the honour to serve with him as an MP. However, when Bill Blaikie brought the point of order that said that if a party happened to fall below 12 members in this place, they still needed to have the respect that allowed them to participate in question period more or less as equals, John Fraser said that was not in doubt. However, they could not get exactly the same privileges when they were fewer than 12. He stood up for everyone in this place without favouritism, without partisanship, and he fought for what was right. He always fought for what was right. I know that I cannot recognize people in the gallery, but perhaps, Mr. Speaker, you will. I am certainly overwhelmed that Sheena, Anna and Mary have shared their father with this country. There was a former quite young staffer I first met then who worked for Speaker Fraser, our former Ottawa mayor, Jim Watson. John Fraser knew everyone and knew how to pull in their involvement and engagement when it mattered, whether it was Dalton Camp or the Right Hon. Brian Mulroney. We would not have solved acid rain without John Fraser. We would not have Gwaii Haanas National Park without John Fraser. We would not have the rivers that we have in British Columbia that were in danger. God bless the memory of John Allen Fraser. May the light perpetual shine upon him as he is gathered up in Heaven right now. I sure hope that they are protecting everything that needs protecting or he will be on the angels' case in short order.
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