44th Parl. 1st Sess.

September 15, 2022 10:00AM

Mr. Pat Kelly (Calgary Rocky Ridge, CPC)

Sep/15/22 5:46:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, last Thursday, as I was leaving my home for the airport and a flight to Ottawa, my wife brought to my attention news that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appeared to be very ill and that the end of her life may be near. My first instinct was disbelief. I could not believe that the news just relayed to me could possibly be anything other than an overreaction or an exaggeration of the severity of her condition. Despite her advanced age, it simply did not occur to me that she could have had anything fewer than five, or maybe even 10, years left. Such was her hold on the consciousness of her subjects and the citizens of her many realms and territories that her mortality seemed beyond belief until her very final hour had come. Born in 1926, she was among the last of what has been called the greatest generation. She was of the generation that defeated Hitler and steeled itself for the long, ultimately successful, prosecution of the Cold War. She was among the very last people still living to have served actively during World War II and certainly the last head of state to have done so. It was during the war years that the public's awareness of the young Princess Elizabeth's devotion to duty began, and that devotion to duty would define her eventual 70-year reign. The Princess insisted on joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service when she turned 18, becoming the first and only woman of the royal family's nearly 1,000-year history to have worn a uniform in full-time defence of the realm. She trained as a mechanic and worked as a driver. Following the war, during her famous 1947 radio address, which was still some years before her ascension, she declared that her life, whether it be long or short, would be devoted to our service. Her life was indeed long, and its total devotion to service would begin a few years later when, at 25 years old, she became Queen Elizabeth II and began what Churchill predicted would be a second Elizabethan age. The only Canadians now living who can recall a time before her reign are now more than 75 years old. The earliest childhood recollection of a world event for some of the very early baby boomers may well be the Queen's 1953 coronation. She lived through nearly two-thirds of Canada's history and reigned for nearly half of it. She and her husband, Prince Philip, first visited my city in 1951, a few months before her ascension, when a miniature version of the Calgary Stampede was held in October. Of course, there was an early winter storm the night before and the royal couple were photographed sitting stoically in the grandstand watching rodeo and chuckwagon races with a reported temperature of 10°F. That is -12°C. Her sense of duty was very much in evidence, and despite these difficult conditions, Princess Elizabeth was reported in the Calgary Herald at the time as having endeared herself to everyone and expressing interest in visiting Calgary again in the future, which is something that she would go on to do four more times during her reign, most recently in 2005. She was the perfect human embodiment of a constitutional monarchy. The occasion of her death is an appropriate moment to reflect on the great and enduring strength of this constitutional arrangement, one that underpins Canadian democratic government and our broader society. This is a constitutional arrangement wherein laws are made, laws are carried out and justice is dispensed, not by the sovereign but in the name of the sovereign. This arrangement has safeguarded the freedom of people who have lived under it for centuries. She reigned with a sense of duty and without an expression of opinion on any public policy, and she did so with dignity and grace. She directly accepted the advice of 15 prime ministers without public comment, yet the memoirs of these prime ministers often mention how much they enjoyed their regular audiences with the Queen. They remarked on her intelligence, how closely she followed national events and the value they placed on her wisdom. This includes such transformational leaders of her time as Churchill and Thatcher. This lifetime of devotion to her kingdom and her many realms and territories, including Canada, continued right up to and including the second-last full day of her life when she personally accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and invited Liz Truss to form a government in her name, thus becoming the final prime minister of her reign, a reign that began 70 years earlier when Sir Winston Churchill was prime minister. Of that day, which was a week ago this past Tuesday, outgoing Prime Minister Johnson said, “she was as radiant and as knowledgeable and as fascinated by politics as ever I can remember and as wise in her advice as anyone I know, if not wiser.” Such was her devotion to duty that, at age 96, while approaching her final hours, she presided over another seamless and orderly transfer of executive power from one prime minister to another. With her passing, another seamless transition takes place, which is that of the ascension of her son, King Charles III, a man who has already spent his life in service and in preparation for this moment, and who will undoubtedly serve with the same devotion to duty, honour, dignity and grace observed at close hand from his mother. To the royal family and to all those over whom Queen Elizabeth reigned, I offer my condolences. May she rest in peace, and may the King long reign over us.

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