Mr. Speaker, we gather today under historic and sad circumstances at a moment of great uncertainty in the world.
Uncertainty, as we continue to cautiously observe the impact of the COVID‑19 pandemic on our reopened economies. Uncertainty, as Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has upset an already unstable political environment, threatening the lives of millions of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, and shocking our collective conscience.
There is uncertainty as the existential threat of climate change has already resulted in more severe weather, which is affecting our lives, challenging our recovery and threatening our communities. In short, we live in a world where the assumptions and conventions that we once took as a given continue to feel like they are being pulled out from under us.
It is, under these circumstances, a sad honour indeed to join fellow members of the House in paying tribute to the woman who was such a constant in our lived experiences, one whose destiny was deeply intertwined with that of our country.
As we celebrate the mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who was our late sovereign, I extend my personal condolences, and those of my family and all the residents of Edmonton Centre, to His Majesty King Charles III and all members of the royal family on the passing of Her Majesty.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne in 1952, becoming the head of state of the United Kingdom, Canada, and other realms. The world was deeply divided between the west and the Soviet Union, in a cold war that seemed ready to turn hot with the slightest provocation.
Parts of the world that had so far been ignored and exploited were gaining confidence and claiming their right to self-determination and self-government. The relatively new invention of television changed our way of seeing and understanding the world. Canada and its allies were just beginning to make essential reforms to our health care system and government services to improve opportunities for everyone.
What a difference a life makes.
Personally, I will always remember the experience of Her Majesty's visit to Edmonton in 2005. I had the opportunity of seeing Her Majesty and listening to her speak in person in my home city. I remember so clearly how she expressed her love of Canada and for Canadians, and how every single time she set foot in our country, she felt at home again.
It was the same love and adoration she expressed on many visits to our country throughout her reign. Indeed, over the last 70 years, Her Majesty participated in, and bore witness to, some of our most significant accomplishments and our greatest challenges, from the existential challenges of two sovereignty referendums to the patriation of our Constitution, including the enshrining of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and from the decriminalization of homosexuality to the celebration of marriage equality, the legal protection of trans and gender-diverse people and the banning of conversion therapy. She saw the growing recognition of the injustices and cultural genocides that mark our legacy with first nations, Inuit and Métis people.
There was the creation of the Commonwealth and the joy and hope of our 100th and 150th anniversaries.
She saw the world's collective horror at the events of September 11 and the ongoing struggle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the whole of our collective experiences, exciting and tragic, inspiring and devastating, she was there. Her presence was a constant assurance that our institutions would hold, that our democracy, our House of Commons, which guides the functioning of our state from the rule of law to the power of the people, would hold through sunshine and storm, through celebrations and challenges.
Through it all, our institutions did hold and we, as a people, held together and grew stronger together.
Indeed, with the exception of my late father, Rowley, there is no member of my family, or that of my partner David's family, who can remember any other person as our head of state. Three generations of my family have only known a world where our head of state was Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. As I said, this is true for my partner David, my mother Shirley, my brother Mark, my sister-in-law Leanne, and for my nephews and niece Ethan, Skyler and Andrew.
I will share a story with the House and my colleagues. My youngest nephew, Andrew, is now 14 and a half years old and is starting to wake up to the world, politics and what is going on around him. When I picked up my phone, which was in the lockbox when we learned of the passing of Her Majesty, the first text I saw was from Andrew. The text in our family group chat read, “Uncle Randy, the Queen has died. What does this mean?” That was the implication in his question. My immediate response was, “Andrew, we are all still trying to figure that out ourselves”, but I responded, “We are now in mourning, and on the Queen's watch Canada became a great country. The Queen is dead. Long live the King.”
When I next get to see Andrew in person, we will chat about the continuation of government and the processes and traditions that are in place to keep our work moving, and we will probably talk about his new motorcycle. However, the fact that he is thinking about the Queen's role and our role as a constitutional monarchy at the age of 14 says something about where he is on his own journey into adulthood.
I share with many in this place, across the country and around the world a deep feeling that embodies the legacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Through it all, she was there, and it became easy at times to think she always would be.
She lived her life with a deep devotion to duty and a profound commitment to service, a responsibility that was placed on her at such a young age and which she accepted with dignity and grace.
Perhaps by now we have seen the video, replayed over the last many days, of a young Elizabeth, just 21 years old, who looked the world in the eye and gave her solemn oath that the whole of her life, whether long or short, would be dedicated to service, that the nations would be her only focus and that those nations would become the Commonwealth. It is a promise that she kept, an oath that she fulfilled.
Now we say thank you.
I am grateful to this extraordinary woman for everything she did.
