Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We heard from the last witness that foreign emissaries used to be brought to Rideau Hall in a horse and carriage. We have moved on from that. Now they get driven in, and so on and so forth, and that's great. I don't think that is necessarily great if we have traditions in this country. If any Governor General comes into place and wants to revert back to that tradition on occasion or in some circumstances, should it not be written somewhere that this was the tradition that took place in Canada, so that over time—yes, we now bring them in a car—if we want to revert back to a tradition, we can easily do that?
In listening to witnesses, protocol seems to be more jealously guarded than anything else I've ever.... We keep hearing the words “flexibility, flexibility, flexibility”. Yes, everybody understands there has to flexibility, depending on what goes on. Is there not a basic standard of protocol that can be easily written down, accepted, and transmitted to people so that we don't have mistakes and we don't lose basic Canadian traditions, and that would still be able to be flexible?
When we bury a firefighter who has fallen in the line of duty, are there not certain aspects at a firefighter's memorial that we would like the municipality to follow in order to make it a proper ceremony? When we do the same for a police officer, are there not certain elements that we should be following so as not to disrespect not only the fallen officer but those who have gone before him? The same with EMS. How much pressure do we, not having this written down, put on you guys and people in your position to actually do it right? When you screw up or something goes wrong, everybody talks about a screw-up; everybody notices a screw-up. What if we had given you the tools? How easy is it for you?
I have been trying to look for national protocol standards. It's all over the place. I don't think it does a disrespect to Canadians or the diversity of the country if we have a set standard. I'm going to leave it open to all of you.