My apologies for taking so long in getting to the business of the House. The business of the House right now is to pay tribute to one of our colleagues who has served parliament for some 30 years.
He is here with us today in our gallery. I refer to Robert “Bob” Marleau, Clerk of the House of Commons and Special Adviser to the Speaker. He is here with his wife, Ann, his sons and his dear friends and colleagues who worked with him for so many years.
If you permit me a few words to begin, I will call you Bob throughout this because we dropped the terms “Gilbert” and “Robert” a long time ago. Almost from the beginning of my mandate as Speaker of the House, I did refer to Bob Marleau not as “the clerk” but as “my clerk”. This possessive was used with the greatest respect to publicly indicate my complete trust and confidence in the man who was to be, for the next seven years, my closest and most trusted adviser.
As members know, Bob Marleau stepped down as Clerk of the House last July. I did not then have the opportunity to stand before you, my colleagues, to thank him on your behalf for his many years of service to the House.
Bob has been a part of the House of Commons for 30 years, more than a generation: committee clerk, treasurer of the Canadian section of the Association internationale des parlementaires de langue française, principal clerk, committees and legislation, clerk assistant and, in 1983, Clerk of the House of Commons.
So much knowledge and experience and all of it available to the clerks at the table, the members of the House and the Chair.
In addition, Bob has been a key member of the Canadian Study of Parliament group, a member of the Association of Clerks-at-the-Table in Canada, a founding member of the Association des secrétaires généraux des parlements membres de l'AIPLF, and is frequently consulted for his parliamentary expertise by his colleagues in other parliaments around the world.
Bob, I thank you for many things, for your wisdom, your judgment, your discretion, your humour, your golf game, even your scolding because even Speakers need straightening out once in a while and few people are brave enough to take on the task. In your time on the Hill you have in your own quiet way greatly influenced those around you. The members of Parliament and the House of Commons, be they security guards, maintenance staff or procedural clerks, all hold you in the highest esteem and speak of you with genuine fondness. Not many people are so well respected.
I am relieved to know that you will remain with me a few months longer as special adviser. I know that your wife Ann and your sons Kristian and Stéphane will enjoy having you around more once you finally leave parliament.
Try to use some of that extra time to improve your golf, but not too much.
Bob, I thank you on behalf of all the members and staff for your years of service to the House of Commons and by extension to parliament and the people of Canada.
Those of us who served alongside you, whether in the Chamber or within the parliamentary precinct, will not soon forget your contribution to this country, both here and abroad. Both yourself and Camille Montpetit, who is with you today, and others, are responsible for a book of rules that we will be using in this parliament, if it follows practice, for the next 40 or 50 years.
Of all the things that I have said to you, Bob, I think in my heart the most important thing that I treasure is your friendship and your unflagging loyalty to this institution. Whenever I lost sight, you were always there to point out that there are other ways to look at things, which were better than the ones I was looking at at that time.
So thank you, my friend, for what you have done for me personally, for these members, for the House of Commons of Canada. You are a great asset to the House. Thank you, Bob.