Speaker, it’s an incredible honour for me to be able to stand today, on behalf of the official opposition, and I believe on behalf of all people in the Legislature, to pay tribute to Mr. Todd Decker, the eighth Clerk to sit in that chair.

I have a little bit of history: When he finished university, he was hired as a committee Clerk, and he started as a co-op student here.

I’ve got to say that sitting here in the last while and serving on some committees with Todd, there’s no one more deserving of the accolades he’s getting today and no one more uncomfortable with them. I can guarantee you that.

Some of us might remember a cartoon in the Bugs Bunny series—this has a point—where the sheepdog and the wolf would clock in and beat each other up all day and then go home, right? And that’s what we do. And the only thing missing in that cartoon is where the sheepdog and the wolf go up to this table and ask what the rules are. The person at the table watches it go on and his face never changes. Todd fits that to a T.

In his career, and certainly in the 12 years that I’ve been here, for everyone here, despite our political differences, who was the one person we trusted to give us the square deal on how we could do it or what we couldn’t do? Who was the head of the ship? Mr. Todd Decker.

It’s incredible to be elected here. One of the things that we all share as elected representatives is we all like to be heard. We have egos. We like to talk. There are only a few people here who actually have a lot of control, maybe ultimate control of this place, and don’t have an ego. Their true role is to make sure that our democratic process runs as it should. Todd Decker is the ultimate example of that—the ultimate, ultimate example of that.

I have also had the incredible honour of sitting here on a few Thursday afternoons. You know what? This place isn’t always exciting. It can be, and it might be incredibly exciting in a few minutes, but it isn’t always exciting. And it’s always amazed me that all at the Clerks’ table, but particularly Todd, can listen and his face just stays as—he never shows a side but he never shows that he’s disinterested. But I’ve got to admit, there have been a couple times where Todd and I have both been fighting to keep our eyes open. Now, he did a much better job of it than I did because once I opened my eyes and he was looking right at me.

I don’t know if I share this with everyone: I don’t come from a political background. When I was first elected, I was as far over there as you could get—and there’s no bad seat in this House. I want to make everyone aware: There’s no such thing as a bad seat in this House. And I actually wondered—I didn’t know anything about how parliamentary democracy worked—what these people were doing and what happened behind the dais. I didn’t have the knowledge or the respect, but now I do.

I’d like anyone listening to this—the people here at the Clerks’ table, behind the dais, on the dais, they’re what make our Parliament work, our democracy work. And once again, there is no better representative of that in this country than Mr. Todd Decker. On our behalf, thank you very much, sir.