Hon. members, I want to return my humble acknowledgments to the House for the great honour you have conferred upon me in electing me to be your Speaker.
Those words are formal ones that I am supposed to say at the beginning of Parliament and that each newly elected Speaker has to say, so I want to make sure I have them correct, but I want also to thank each one of you, my colleagues, for having chosen me to be your Speaker once again.
I had the great honour and pleasure of serving as Speaker during the last Parliament. I greatly appreciated the support and help I received from the members of all the parties in this House during those years and earlier as well when I was Deputy Speaker during the 36th Parliament.
For the 38th Parliament to be here and to have a chance to work with you again of course is a great honour. I very much appreciate your support today in the withdrawal of all of you from being candidates, which is very flattering and for which I thank you, and for the chance to work with you again as we embark on what I have no doubt will be a very interesting Parliament. Whether it is long or short, it will be something in which we will have great fun throughout.