Mr. Speaker, the privilege of holding this office demands the highest level of personal accountability and dedication. Most of us hold this principle true, because while we may fundamentally differ on ideology, many come here first seeking to build a country that is healthy, prosperous and just.
While there are those who lose sight of this because of the trappings power can afford, I first choose to think of my colleague from the NDP who came back here a month after giving birth, my independent colleague who battled cancer of the lymph nodes, my Liberal colleague who only just left to be with his very expectant wife, and my Conservative colleague who overcomes a severe physical restriction, all these things done to be here in support of our democracy. Then I think of the greatness that is in fact Canada.
To this, and to all of us here, to our families, who shoulder the oft-lonely reality of absence and the sometimes painful nakedness of public life, this role is indeed honourable and it is incumbent on each of us, as well as those who hold the lens through which this role is perceived, to uphold this above all.