Thank you, Madam Chair.
I think that for all of us, as Canadians, last week brought a moment of incredible pride, joy and reflection. You often hear astronauts talk about something called the overview effect—the idea that there's a shift in perspective when you go out into space, look down at earth and realize that we are one interconnected humanity, that we are an interconnected set of beings. As the borders disappear, we realize how much more we have in common and how much more we have to be doing to work together.
As my friend opposite was talking about the journey and about the journey back to earth, I kept thinking about this idea that, when we are in it, we often forget how much more there is when we look outside of our own selves. I think for all Canadians, looking at the role that Jeremy Hansen played in this gave us an incredible sense of pride. He is a Canadian. There was a Canadian flag in space. However, as he pointed out, when they were all up there, they were all in this together. Nationality didn't matter. Their ethnicity and gender didn't matter. Nothing mattered. What mattered was that they shared a common purpose, a common sense of belonging and a common sense of doing this for humanity.
I think there's a tremendous lesson for all of us in these particularly trying times and moments when we often feel like we're fighting for things for all of us but like we are fighting alone. We realize that we're all in this fight together to build a better country and to build a better planet.
Hopefully the lessons that Artemis II has taught us in this moment will stay with us as the world continues to be complicated. Perhaps it will be a lesson to all of humanity that we should think about the overview effect for all of us, take a step back and ask ourselves how being intertwined and interconnected is a much more powerful and much more beneficial thing than being opposed to one another at every turn.
Thank you, Madam Chair.