Mr. Speaker, at the end of an obituary for the late Bev Koester, there is a quote from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and it goes like this “and may there be no moaning of the bar when I put out to sea.”
I want to say to the family of Mr. Koester that we are not here to violate this instruction, to moan at the bar. We are here to pay tribute to someone who served this House of Commons very well in the time that he was here.
I certainly remember the days when Mr. Koester sat at the table as Clerk. He swore me in a couple of times. He served this House well. He had a distinguished career in the navy, in academia, in this House and in the Saskatchewan legislature.
I note that he was the Clerk of the House of Commons and a Clerk of the Saskatchewan legislature at very interesting times, having been the Clerk of the Saskatchewan legislature during the great debate about medicare and the Clerk in this House during the bell ringings and various other goings on that occurred around the patriation of the constitution in the early 1980s.
He will be missed. My NDP colleagues and I extend our sincere condolences to his family.