Mr. Speaker, I too am so thrilled to lend my voice to the accolades and tributes that our clerk emerita is receiving today. They are well-founded and so well-deserved. I know that I do not have to list all the wonderful accomplishments that the government House leader has mentioned, although I will note that he was here for both the beginning and the end of her career at the table. I do not know if that says anything about his colleagues or members in the House.
I do want to add my voice to everything that the government House leader said about the wonderful addition that Audrey O'Brien has left in this House, both in terms of the procedure and practice manual and the impact she has made on so many of us.
I know I speak for all my colleagues, probably none more so than the former chair of the procedure and House affairs committee, the former member for Elgin—Middlesex—London, Mr. Joe Preston. I know he was mentioning earlier on how special this day would be for Ms. O'Brien, and the friendship that he had with her.
I want to note the high esteem in which our clerk was held internationally. The House of Commons procedural team does a lot of capacity-building for emerging democracies. Their representatives come to Canada to learn best practices on how to establish their parliamentary systems. They take that knowledge back with them and help make their parliaments stronger, more robust, and more dynamic.
A lot of that was done with the direction of Ms. O'Brien, and her work and leadership with her department. When some of us have travelled to visit those parliaments, people there often mention the trips they had here, the time they spent here, and the work that they did while they were here and learned so much.
I want to speak to a few of the other lasting legacies.
Even here, members take for granted the procedural services and reference works available in person, in print, and online. Few of us realize that they are there as a result of the pioneering work done with the help of the databases set up by Ms. O'Brien and her colleagues. This is a huge success, and those of us who access them on a regular basis have nothing but admiration for the complexity and nuance of this work. The fruits of these labours can be found in both editions of Procedure and Practice, more commonly known as O'Brien and Bosc.
I do want to mention that there are a few things I could probably share. Ms. O'Brien and I worked very closely for many years. It is ironic to talk about all the advancements in the digital age and some of the new technologies that Ms. O'Brien pioneered because she liked to refer to herself as a member of the rotary generation. I thought she meant some kind of service club, but apparently phones used to have some kind of different keypad. I remember many conversations we had where at the end of the advice she would give me, she would say that part of her job was saving me from myself and saving members from themselves.
Throughout it all, even throughout the advice given sometimes with a bit of self-deprecating humour and some of the therapeutic drafts we would often write before rulings, there was a real sense of the importance of Parliament. There is no doubt that Ms. O'Brien loved the House of Commons, loved Parliament, and loved our democracy. The lesson that she certainly left on me was that we had to take this place seriously and what we do here seriously, but we should not take ourselves too seriously.
At some point in my mandate as Speaker, there were talks about a life after politics where my chief of staff and clerk might embark on some kind of reality show. I think it was called stilettos and sensible shoes. I look forward to that. I think it will give Power and Politics and Power Play a run for their money.
On behalf of all the members of my caucus and especially myself, my wife, and my children who got to know Ms. O'Brien very well, I want to wish her all the best. It was such a pleasure serving with her.