Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the NDP, I would like to join with other members of the House who have already paid tribute to the Bill Kempling. I served
in the House with Mr. Kempling for 14 of the 21 years that he was here. I certainly have very vivid memories of Bill in the House, particularly as the whip. I see him in my mind's eye proceeding to the Table.
I also remember the time, as the member for Beaver River just mentioned, when Bill did not come in and we were subjected to 16 days, I believe, of bell ringing.
I remember Bill as a partisan member of Parliament. He could be very direct and even harsh. He was impatient with things that he did not agree with. However, like the minister of defence said, he also had the ability to put all that aside and to be a good colleague all at the same time outside of the Chamber and in various other joint pursuits that members of Parliament are called on to participate in.
This may say something about the humility of Mr. Kempling, but I knew nothing of the struggle he had with polio in his early life. He was not the kind of fellow to talk about those kinds of things, I presume, although I never worked with him directly.
However, I did know about his war record and we all honour him for that. We also honour him for his personal struggles with disease in his youth, particularly polio. We honour him for his service here in the House of Commons. We extend our condolences to his family.