Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure, but also with some regret, that I rise to share a few words about my friend, our friend, the hon. member for Toronto Centre.
He has worked very hard for his fellow citizens. Many of his constituents have very limited means. His riding was known as Rosedale a few years ago and, as we all know, some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country are found there.
I was elected at the municipal level in the same area for years, and I can assure this House that the hon. member for Toronto Centre was always there for his fellow citizens and worked with them for social justice and their well-being. He is not someone who shies away from anyone in need.
I witnessed firsthand what a member of Parliament who is truly committed to all of his constituents can do. It probably would have been very easy for the member for Toronto Centre to have found many reasons not to be a part of a lot of community activities. He was a minister and a brilliant chairman of the foreign affairs and international development committee. He served his country in so many different ways and yet I can attest to how devoted he was to his constituents. We would often be together in some of the poorest neighbourhoods where some of the greatest homelessness is found, where people are really struggling, and the member for Toronto Centre would be there because he is someone who takes and who always has taken his responsibilities very seriously.
He is warmly welcomed in the parts of the community that he represents. He was also one of the first to stand for civil rights and human rights for gays and lesbians at a time when that was not very popular.
I must say that I was always very impressed by his dedication to human rights and his participation in such a celebratory and principled way with people who are often on the margins and can still feel that marginalization today, but they will never feel it when it comes to the member for Toronto Centre. He has been honoured many times, and rightly so.
I was thinking of the things we share in common. We were both born in Montreal and both spent some time in the same academic institution at the University of Toronto. He was far more famous and illustrious than I in my time there, I must say. We also had the opportunity to contest the 1993 election in Toronto Centre. We were both trying to defeat David MacDonald at the time who was the member and a Conservative. I succeeded in converting David MacDonald to a socialist but that was really the only consolation I had.
The member for Toronto Centre taught me the lesson that one needs to lose a couple of times before one earns the right to be in this place. Three of us would often go out for a couple of beers after an all candidates debate, a practice that I would like to propose to the other party leaders, by the way, and we would talk about job sharing and the issues of the day. He did assure me that someday I would probably be elected but not in his riding. He was right once again.
The other thing I want to say is that I have always felt that despite his sort of straight back demeanour and his very dignified presence, the hon. member is very approachable at the human level. We had a number of occasions to talk about issues together one on one. Every time I found a dignity, an openness, a friendship and the kind of conversation that we really wish could happen among all of us much more often.
When he stood in his place to debate, we knew several fundamentals about this man: he felt that he was here to serve the others and his country. We also knew that he loved his country very profoundly every time that he spoke. We finally knew that he respected this place and the opportunity that it provides for all of us to do our best on behalf of our fellow citizens.
I think what we are talking about here is a true parliamentarian, someone who can serve as an example for people coming newly to politics. I hope they will study the record of the member for Toronto Centre.
I hope that he will accept, on behalf of my caucus, the New Democratic Party, and all our members and supporters across the country, our gratitude because we appreciate the service of the member. We also want to thank his family for sharing him with us over these last number of years. We wish him well in the future.