44th Parl. 1st Sess.

September 15, 2022 10:00AM

Hon. Ginette Petitpas Taylor (Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Lib.)

Sep/15/22 1:07:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am truly honoured to address the House of Commons today, on this historic occasion, in memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. For the past seven decades, she has been a constant in our world and in our lives. Through good times and challenging times, a dozen prime ministers here in Canada and even more in the United Kingdom, and all of the rapid social and technological changes that have marked the years since she ascended to the throne in 1952 as the Queen of Canada, our Queen, she has always been there. Now, unfortunately, she is no more. Although she is no longer with us, she will never be forgotten, if what we have seen every day since the announcement of her death is any indication. As we have heard in the tributes in this place and from around the world, she truly was a remarkable woman and her memory will live forever. The memories of her will not just be of who she was as Queen but as who she was as a person. Despite living her life constantly in the public eye from the time that she was born, she unfailingly lived up to the enormous pressures that were put upon her. She was warm and she was a compassionate person. She displayed grace and wisdom. She believed in serving her country and serving the Commonwealth. These are qualities that all of us should aspire to. On this occasion, I will focus my speech on her four visits to the Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe region and the impact she had on the people in our part of the country, the beautiful province of New Brunswick. On her first trip to Moncton in 1951, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Elizabeth, then the Duchess of Edinburgh, visited our historic park, which was named after her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria. This week, one of my constituents from Moncton talked about the time that school children travelled by bus to the park that day in November to welcome the young princess. She also told me how, at age 10, she marvelled at Elizabeth's beauty and Prince Philip's imposing presence, not to mention his impressive height. The young girl had meticulously kept an album of black and white photos of the royal couple's wedding a few years earlier and now they were standing before her in the flesh. When asked all these years later what the weather was like on that November day, my constituent paused for a brief moment and then said that it must have been a fine day, but she could not really remember the details. She said that it was all so thrilling and that the day just seemed to glow. I will tell the House that I live near Victoria Park, and I walk through it whenever I am home. It is a beautiful place. However, I must also admit that a fine day at the park in November in New Brunswick is by no means guaranteed. I can only guess that it was in fact the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh who made the day shine so brightly in the eyes of my constituent. As we all know, it would only be three short months after her visit to Moncton that Princess Elizabeth, a young wife and mother of two toddlers, would suddenly lose her beloved father, King George VI, and take on the burden of the Crown, all in an instant. Young Princess Elizabeth could have never imagined that she would wear that crown for the next seven decades and that, for so many of us, she would become not only a monarch, but also a mother and grandmother figure. She could also never have imagined that day that, in 70 years on the throne, she would never once falter in her duty and that she would remain a symbol of grace and distinction for so many of us. Queen Elizabeth returned to Moncton, to Victoria Park, just eight years later, but this time as Her Majesty. This royal visit in the summer of 1959 is still the most memorable one for the people of New Brunswick. The Queen and Prince Philip had just started a cross-Canada tour when a violent storm hit New Brunswick's Northumberland coast. In all, 35 men and boys, all but four of them from the tiny village of Escuminac, New Brunswick, were forever lost at sea. Upon hearing of the tragic news, and throughout her 45 day royal tour in Canada, Her Majesty continued to ask for regular updates about the disaster. Upon arriving in the Yukon territory, the Queen suddenly felt ill. We now know she was secretly suffering from morning sickness in the first trimester of her pregnancy. When she confided this to then prime minister John Diefenbaker, he suggested that she and Prince Philip should shorten their tour. It was also suggested to her that perhaps the sovereign use the New Brunswick leg of the tour to simply rest, once they had arrived to our beautiful province. The Queen would hear none of it, however. Not only did the royal couple fulfill all of their engagements in New Brunswick, but they also added more stops, taking the time to meet with the widows and orphans of the Escuminac disaster on the wharf at Pointe-du-Chêne, where the Royal Yacht Britannia was moored in Shediac Bay. There, one summer day on the wharf, our Queen, herself a young wife and mother, did her best to comfort the grieving families in both English and French, effortlessly switching between the two languages. According to the Moncton Daily Times, the newspaper of the day, among the mothers and wives weeping on the wharf was none other than Her Majesty herself. It has been said many times that the stoicism and resolve Queen Elizabeth II demonstrated throughout her life was brightly admired by all in the realm. In that instant, during a time of terrible tragedy in our province, her resolute strength surely gave everyone great courage. That day, however, in our little corner of New Brunswick, the Queen's compassion briefly overcame her extraordinary resolve. Everyone in New Brunswick was touched to see Queen Elizabeth II express her sadness so openly. It was later reported that the royal couple broke precedent and donated an undisclosed but generous sum to the fund set up for families of the lost. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's gift inspired people around the world to donate to the cause as well. New Brunswick has never forgotten that kind gesture on their part. The Queen and the Prince visited New Brunswick again in 1984 during much happier times. Nearly two decades later, in 2002, Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh returned to the Moncton area for their final visit. Next month, it will be 20 years since she visited us on her Golden Jubilee tour. During her visit, she helped my home town of Dieppe celebrate its 50th anniversary. She also inaugurated the new terminal of what is now called the Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport, because she wanted to honour the people of Moncton for welcoming the thousands of travellers stranded at the airport following the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, the year before her visit. For 70 years and throughout her glorious reign, Her Majesty was there for the people of New Brunswick, in good times and also in bad times, just as she was there for people throughout the Commonwealth. We will never forget her. I would like to conclude my remarks with a story, not about our departed Queen but rather our new King. It is a story that was never publicly reported and not really widely known. While the tragedy of Escuminac is fading in the memory for many New Brunswickers, some of the darkest days in Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe's history are unfortunately still painful memories for many of my constituents. Eight years ago, a shooting in our community injured five members of the RCMP, three of them fatally. At the time, I was a social worker employed by the RCMP as a victim services coordinator. The grief in our community and our police detachment in the aftermath was something impossible to describe in words. Thankfully, messages of support from the public and private came from around the world, and they really helped our people heal. One of those private messages of support came from His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales himself, who also sent personal letters and bouquets of flowers to the wives of the three fallen RCMP members. It may have been a small gesture, but it was also a reminder that no matter how bad things get, there is still good in the world. The kindness and thoughtfulness that our future king showed is the kind of thing we learn from our parents, if we are lucky. The Prince of Wales had the good fortune of having his mother with him for 73 years, and she was a shining example. God bless the Queen, and God bless the King.

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