Mr. Speaker, I will not abuse the indulgence that you have given me today, but I do want to sincerely thank the other party leaders.
I want to thank the Prime Minister for his kind words. I believe our children are of the same age. If there is one person who knows the challenges and the difficult decisions that need to be made when balancing public and private life, it would be the Prime Minister. I have always appreciated our opportunities to chat briefly about how our respective families are holding up during the pressure and the grind that this life places on parliamentarians.
I also want to thank the Leader of the Bloc Québécois for his comments. We have not worked together for very long, but as he said, all of our conversations have been respectful.
Thanks very much to the leader of the NDP as well. We have crossed paths several times throughout the years at various events together. I have always found when we put partisan differences aside, there is a great deal of mutual respect for people of all different parties because when we come to this place, we might disagree on what it is that we think should be done for Canada, but we all agree on the motivation, and that is to make Canada better place.
I truly do believe that. Each one of us makes tremendous sacrifices to that.
I hope the Prime Minister will not mind a bit of good-natured ribbing. Obviously debates can be heated and fiery, but we do like to point out successes and we are very proud of what we accomplished in the last election. Although we fell short of our goal, someone pointed out something that I have not fact-checked yet, but I will: I am the first person in Canadian history to get more votes than a Trudeau. I could not resist saying that.
I do intend to serve the constituents of Regina—Qu'Appelle for the near future. When I was 25, the highest goal I set for myself was to be the best member of Parliament that I could be for the constituents of Regina—Qu'Appelle, and I look forward to devoting more time to doing that.
As for future positions in the House, those are discussions for another day. I doubt that I will become the Grover Cleveland of Speakers. That is probably not going to be in the cards.
I once again want to thank all my parliamentary colleagues.
Thank you so much for your kind words today. I know they are heartfelt.
We all go back to our homes and our ridings and deal with many of the same struggles, no matter where we are from or what party we represent.
I will see members at 2:15.