Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to stand in the House and speak as we get close to coming to a conclusion in this place.
December 11 is an interesting date for us in the House. It is the 87th anniversary of the Westminster Act. It began with the scandalous King-Byng affair, which began in 1925. Mackenzie King, the prime minister at the time, wanted to call for dissolution, but the governor general refused. He tried again, and eventually the Conservatives, under Meighen, came in power. Again, it did not work, and again, Mackenzie King was in a situation where the governor general had no choice but to dissolve.
This led to a lot of study and a lot of work that ended in 1931 with the Westminster Act. It changed the role of the governor general in Canada. What we do in the House and the Senate changed significantly because of the debate in the House through those years, which ended with this particular act. It re-established the authenticity and power of the people who make decisions in the House. Therefore, this is a significant anniversary as we wind up this particular place and review what happened 87 years ago for the Statute of Westminster.
We have the press gallery, which is significant in reporting on what we do. We have incredible names from history, such as Charles Lynch, who has a press conference room named after him. He was significant in his reporting on what we do in the House. The press gallery is an incredible part of what we do here, as it reports on these activities. In those times, the reporters sat in the chamber as there was no TV. It came in 1978, and I think drastically changed what happens in here. Bruce Hutchinson is another press gallery reporter. He is also an incredible writer of Canadian history. These people brought the flavour of what we did in the House to the Canadian people as they wrote it in the media. The press gallery continues to be an essential part of how we function in our country, democracy, and what we bring to it. There were significant people in the press gallery in the past.
Other changes have occurred here, such as simultaneous translation. We have had debate here in recent weeks and months on legislation to allow other languages to be translated. However, simultaneous translation happened in the 1950s when Diefenbaker was prime minister. Up until that time, we had the blues, which we would read many hours later to see what people said in the House, and we would talk about it the next day. We now have simultaneous translation so that we can hear the proceedings in both official languages, and we are talking about possibly allowing translations of other languages. These are things particular to the House.
As we wind up this place, we see the significance of the architecture. We have heard members refer to “take it outside the doors”, but if we go outside the doors, we see the portraits of prime ministers on both sides of our main entrance. There is significance of the location of two portraits, Borden's and King's, who were our wartime prime ministers, which is why those two portraits are located just beside the entryway into the House of Commons. The other prime ministers' portraits are in the hallway.
Some members might want to talk about the debates we have had. An interesting one was during World War I on the War Measures Act, which was adopted, and power was turned over to the executive. There is not a lot of debate when we do that. The Second World War came and, again, power went to the executive and was not debated here. However, there is one debate many people might remember on the War Measures Act, which happened around two o'clock in the morning in 1971. Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, at the time, implemented the War Measures Act. Was it debated here in the House? No it was not. Members were debating the Fisheries Act, because under the War Measures Act, power went to the executive and was not for MPs to debate in the House. Things were a little different under that particular legislation, which had been established in World War I. However, there were significant things debated in this House by many politicians over the last 100 years.
The carillon is a part of this building. Many of us have heard the carillon being played. Dr. McCready is a famous carillon player and we have the opportunity to go to the Peace Tower. Its 100th anniversary will be in 2026. Hopefully, there will be a way for people to access the facility; otherwise that will only happen in 2026. I know the building is going to be undergoing renovations. However, that is a significant piece of what goes on here in the building.
I know that my time must be coming to an end. Therefore, I will say at this point that it has been a great opportunity to talk a bit about history to wind up my time in the House today.