Madam Chair, through you, I think it's very important and I thank the honourable member for his intervention—a person who has sat in this role before.
To go back to the ref analogy, quite frankly, it was a different league in which we were involved. However, I also recognize that the member is right. Talking about my past, although in that reference to the notion of “our party”, that was when I was a resident of Ontario, back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, up until 1994. It was that time that it was referring to. I do not like talking. I don't want to talk about my past here, because, every time I do, I know that it sounds like I'm being partisan. It is a matter of record that, at that time, we were both members of the same party. It is a fact that I don't want to.... I'm not validating that today. I just want to make sure about that.
The second thing is that you raised the issue of my chief of staff. As you know, having been Speaker, you're administrating a large organization. My chief of staff left Parliament Hill in early 2018. It's been almost six years that he's been occupying a senior management role in the private sector. He's someone who can help manage this and, more importantly, someone who also has political experience. He understands what it is to be a third political party, and to be in official opposition and in government. He's someone who has an ability to hear and respond to the needs brought up by all folks. That's the reason why this person was hired. He's calm and collected, and he has a great reputation on the Hill.