Mr. Speaker, on a day when we are welcoming and celebrating the contribution of former parliamentarians, their parents and grandparents, whose memory they are respecting today, I would like to offer congratulations on behalf of the Liberal Party to all those who ran, either winning or losing, in the last election.
We all know that trying to represent our constituents is one of the great honours and pleasures of our own lives, but above all we have to reflect on those who fought so hard and who were not returned, or who wait for another occasion to be returned.
In that spirit, I would like, in this, my first statement as interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, to pay particular tribute to my former leader Mr. Michael Ignatieff, the former member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore, who served in this House with great distinction and who served the people of Canada with great ability. I know he will continue to go on to great public service, as he did before he came to this place and as he will afterwards.