Mr. Speaker, on Friday, we heard of the passing away of Alan A Macnaughton, on the eve of his 96th birthday.
He had a remarkably long life. His professional and political accomplishments were many.
He obtained his law degree from McGill University in 1926 and went on to post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics.
Mr. Macnaughton then practised law in Montreal before being elected to the House of Commons for the first time in 1949, under the Liberals of Louis Saint-Laurent, in the Montreal riding of Mount-Royal. In 1958, he became the first opposition member to chair the public accounts committee.
In 1963, he was appointed Speaker of the House of Commons and, in 1966, he was called to the Senate where he was to sit until the mid-1970s.
Mr. Macnaughton will be remembered as a highly talented man who is said to have had the greatest respect for democracy and its institutions. He will leave his mark as a skilled businessman and an expert in Quebec and Canadian law. Until very recently, he was still working at his Montreal office.
On behalf of my Bloc Quebecois colleagues, I would like to extend to his friends and family our sincere condolences.