The day will come, he says. I think not. Anyway, things went well, and here I am today sincerely thanking the voters of Glengarry—Prescott—Russell for the choice they made.
I have difficulty reading the calendar on the Clerk's table from this distance without glasses, but I believe that today is October 12. Thirteen days from now, if that is the correct date, I will mark the 38th anniversary of my arrival here on Parliament Hill on October 25, 1966.
I say this every time there is an address in reply to the throne speech and I intend to do it every time. I want to remind myself and perhaps others too of my beginnings here on Parliament Hill. I started here as a busboy at the parliamentary restaurant.
Canada being the country that it is and in its generosity saw fit to give me a number of opportunities in life, including a successful career as a civil servant. Later I was given the opportunity to represent my fellow citizens in three mandates at the municipal level.
Later on, in 1981 I had the opportunity to become the member for Prescott—Russell, as it was called provincially at the time, and was re-elected in 1984, 1988, 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2004 here to the House of Commons. I am therefore the most fortunate of men, to have had the opportunity to represent the people of my country at three levels of government, over a goodly number of years, despite the humble beginnings I have referred to earlier.
I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate the Prime Minister on the Speech from the Throne that was presented to us by Her Excellency the Governor General. The Speech from the Throne describes well the aspirations not only of the government but indeed of all Canadians. They are those things that we wish for, and our government is here to make as many of them happen as humanly possible, given the minority government situation in which this Parliament will operate.
Only four days after Parliament resumed, a motion was proposed to the House that could well have sent the voters back to the ballot boxes. As for myself, with my experience in the House of Commons, I believe any person who acted in such a way to send us back to the ballot boxes prematurely would be punished by the people of Canada in that vote.
Let me explain. This situation is not new. In 1974, an election took place 18 months after the previous one, in 1972. Why? The New Democratic Party, whose members now sit on my right, which is rather ironic, withdrew its support for the government in 1974. What happened? We saw a motion to amend the budget defeated, followed by an election. What did the public do? It almost wiped the New Democrats off the map. I think there were about 12 out of 40 left after that election; the others were all defeated. In the eyes of the Canadian people, the election was set off prematurely and it was their fault.
And now let us move forward a few years, to 1979. That year the government of the Right Honourable Joe Clark was defeated after a vote in the House of Commons on an amendment to an amendment. The people decided that the government had not done its homework. It did not even get all its members to return to Parliament for the vote. The government did nothing to ask for the support of the Social Credit members in the House at that time. The result was that the government was defeated on that vote. The Social Credit Party has completely disappeared from the House of Commons and none of its members have ever been seen here since. What happened? What did the people do? Those who caused a needless and unwanted election were brought into line by the people of Canada.
I would like to remind all my colleagues in the House of Commons, on my side and on the other, that if we are not serious in this Parliament and if someone—and I do not mean this in a partisan way—tries to exploit a situation to set off a premature election, the people will not swallow it. If it is the government's fault—although I do not think that would happen—the people will speak. If the opposition intentionally plays Russian roulette, as we saw a few days ago, and if it causes a premature election, the people will punish the ones who pull the trigger.
I suppose others might think differently about this issue but I believe history has demonstrated that this is how it has happened in the past. Furthermore, when we and all of our constituents went to the polls, nowhere on the ballot did it say, “We elect you but we want you back in six months, in three months, or even in four days”. The population said by way of its vote, “We elect you for the ensuring mandate”. That is why they sent all of us here.
That is why I believe it is incumbent upon all of us on all sides of the House to behave responsibly. We cannot on one side of the House be arrogant, that is true; and the other side of the House cannot play bumper car politics all the time because it is not going to work in a minority Parliament. Therefore I conclude by asking my colleagues to be respectful of this great institution and hopefully to make this Parliament last the length of time that Canadians expect it to before going back to the people of Canada.