Mr. Speaker, the last time you said my name, I was among the spectators and not a member of this House. I am delighted to be here now as an elected representative. Thank you very much.
I want to acknowledge first of all the role that was just played by the dean of the House and to indicate that it is typical of the role that the New Democratic Party will be able to play in the future in pulling perhaps disparate points of view together around a common cause, the first act of which was your acclamation, Mr. Speaker.
Your acclamation sends a very strong signal that the members of the House wish to work together in order to achieve common objectives. I think it is going to place before you a challenge the likes of which has not been seen for quite some time. In actual fact, on each and every vote the results will by no means be predetermined.
This is going to put you and all members of the House into an interesting position. We are all going to have to work a lot harder. We are going to have to be considering the will of Canadians a lot more carefully because nothing will be prescribed in advance.
Our role as a political party will be to pursue our perspectives, and to hope and count on you to ensure that your wisdom, your eyesight and your intuition will cause you to notice that we are down at the far end of the chamber wishing to raise our points of view.
In addition, we will not to be facing a House of Commons with proposals coming simply from the government. We will be having proposals for interesting legislation and initiatives emerging from all parts of the House, and certainly from this corner. It will be very important that your judgment and your role here ensure that all members of the House are able to bring forward effectively the kind of recommendations that Canadians want to see, and to allow the votes and decisions to reflect that broad consensus of Canadians that exists out there.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to extend to you my congratulations and a cordial welcome. Let me assure you that we will be working hard in the interest of all Canadians, as will all the members of this Parliament. I expect to have many interesting discussions with you and my new House of Commons colleagues.