Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf our party to pay tribute to a person who I think was one of the finest constituency MPs I ever met.
When I came to the House in 1997, one of the first persons to greet me was this great big fellow from Labrador. He wanted to make sure it was correct. He did not say Newfoundland. He said “Labrador, oh and by the way, Newfoundland”.
He was a man who was really proud of the white, green and blue flag of Labrador. He wore it all the time. In fact, in my little pin collection the first one I got was from him. It was a little flag. He told me to wear it with pride every time I went to Labrador.
One of the honours I had was when the Standing Committee of Fisheries and Oceans was in Richmond, British Columbia for a committee hearing. My mother lived just about a block away from where the hall was, and she invited all of us over for breakfast that morning. Mr. O'Brien of course never could pass up a good bacon and egg breakfast. We were late for the committee by almost an hour because he sat with my mother. He asked her about coming to Canada, about the west coast and what it was like in a group home, et cetera. He was that interested and concerned about my mother, and he used that concern with his own constituents. He was a man who looked at Parliament in the way that it should be looked at, as being truly representative and of being a representative of his people.
For those of us who have had the privilege of working on the fisheries committee, there was no one who argued against ministers and their staff, even if they were from his own party, harder and tougher than Lawrence O'Brien. In fact, sometimes I got a little nervous for Lawrence because he went at them so ferociously, but he did it with a sense of respect and the fact that he knew of what he was speaking. That is something we will all miss in the House of Commons.
I say to the people of Labrador, to his wife and children and to his office and parliamentary staff, thanks very much for sharing Lawrence O'Brien with us in the House of Commons and for that matter, all Canadians.
We will sadly miss him. He is now in God's hands and I am sure he is talking to God right saying, “Now Labrador, let me tell you how beautiful it is down there”. As Lawrence once told me, when God created earth he created Labrador first and the rest of the planet came after.
On behalf of our leader, the New Democratic Party across the country and all the friends and people who knew Mr. O'Brien in a personal way, we will very much miss him, but he is in God's hands. We say God bless to the memory of Lawrence O'Brien and to all his friends and family.