Mr. Speaker, the members of this House through their applause show that those words ring as true today as they did when they were spoken by Laurier almost 100 years ago.
I have already gone on to another challenge as chair of the International Joint Commission.
I am now the chair of the International Joint Commission, which deals with the important issues that have interested me throughout my years of public life.
Yes, the International Joint Commission deals with great issues and questions that have concerned me throughout my public career: the relations between Canada and the United States; the management of our shared border from the Pacific to the Atlantic; the preservation and quality of the waters forming that border and across that border; the elimination of what is threatening our future and those of our children, transboundary air and water pollution.
We are rightfully focusing on winning the fight against terrorism, but we are doing it for reasons of maintaining and extending our freedom and that of other people in the world and for reasons of maintaining, strengthening and preserving the quality of life for ourselves and our grandchildren. This means putting a priority on the improvement, the strengthening of our human and natural environment.
I want to say by way of conclusion that I am very pleased to have left this wonderful place at a time when my skills are strong and evident, and I thank God for this, so that I can apply them in the challenges that I have mentioned and in the spirit of the words of Tennyson in his great poem Ulysses when he said:
How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished, not to shine in use! Some work of noble note may yet be done.
I hope to have that opportunity for you and all Canadians. I conclude with further words of Tennyson from his great poem, Ulysses. He said:
I am a part of all that I have met, Though much is taken, much abides; That which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, ...strong in will, To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
I urge all of you to continue your work here in this House and with all Canadians so that together you will strive to seek, to find, and not to yield in building an even better Canada in a much better and peaceful world.
Thank you very much, merci beaucoup.