44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 15, 2022 10:00AM
- Sep/15/22 10:30:57 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I want to join with my colleagues in marking the tragic loss of life in Saskatchewan, on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the town of Weldon. The sorrow and pain for the families who lost their loved ones to such unspeakable violence is beyond our understanding. We hold these families close in our hearts.
Today I want to join in marking the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and extend my condolences to her family. At the age of 21 she made the promise that she would spend her whole life, whether it be long or short, fulfilling her duty. For more than 70 years, she kept this promise.
Two days before she died, she met with the incoming British prime minister and invited her to form a government, ensuring that she fulfilled this final constitutional duty.
Queen Elizabeth II led a remarkable life, a life marked by history. Amid tremendous change, she was a figure of stability, providing a constant symbol to many.
Ninety-six years is a long time for anyone to be alive. She was born before mass communication and media shrank the distances between nations, before television, and long before the Internet brought us limitless access to information.
Her life was marked by war. In World War II, as her parents vowed to stay in London while it was bombed, she and her sister were moved to Windsor for safety. As children in war, the Queen and her sister took to the airwaves in a radio broadcast for other children who were also experiencing the worry and fear of bombing attacks and parents gone to fight.
Throughout her life, Queen Elizabeth II used her platform to offer encouragement in difficult times. Most recently, during the pandemic, she reminded us that we would get through the challenge and the pain of not being able to see loved ones. She asked us to greet the tough times with optimism and hope, by pulling together and doing what needed to be done. She said, “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again. We will meet again.”
For many, her death marks the end of an era. She is the only queen we have ever known. She loved Canada very much, and I have heard many stories from people who were very touched by their encounters with Her Majesty.
In the days since her death, I have heard many Canadians talk about meeting her. She came to Canada often, as has been remarked, showing her affection for this country. Many who met the Queen, sometimes for the briefest of moments, feel that she took the time to listen to them and was interested in their lives and sincere in her appreciation for the chance to meet them. This was her gift: to make one feel seen in a crowd of thousands and to invest her whole attention in every encounter, even when it was one of many.
I would also like to take a moment to congratulate King Charles III on assuming his mother's legacy. He is grieving this profound loss as the world watches, while also ensuring that he lives up to the task. I hope he will rise to the challenge of reconciliation that has been laid before him by First Nations leaders and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
One of the calls to action is for the issuing of a royal proclamation of reconciliation. I hope that when the Prime Minister has his first meeting with the new King, he will remind him of this outstanding call to action and the power that King Charles has to further the goal of reconciliation.
There is also much work to be done to repair the relationship of the Crown with many people around the world who experienced pain as a result of colonialization. Loss of language and culture, violence and war are the legacies of a colonial past. I believe the new King has an opportunity and a responsibility to do what he can to right the wrongs of the past.
In closing, I want to again extend my deep condolences to the family of Queen Elizabeth II. More than a monarch, she was a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother. It is for her family that we must feel the deepest sympathy. They have lost a pillar of strength, a reminder of their own history and an example of a life well lived.
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- Sep/15/22 10:38:32 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with our parliamentary leader unable to attend this morning, it is my honour to rise on behalf of the Green caucus to mark the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
Before I begin, I, too, want to acknowledge the tragic loss of life in James Smith Cree Nation and let that entire community know that we are thinking of them.
With her reign of over 70 years, the longest of any British monarch, Her Majesty was a true example of living a life of service. I would like to express our condolences to her family and all of those who loved her.
Reflections on the life of the late sovereign tend to centre on the word “duty”. It was the decision of her late uncle to reject the call of duty and follow the call of love that led her father, King George VI, to the throne. It was his untimely death in 1952 that threw a young woman, a newlywed at that, into a life of service and duty. The personal cost to her and her family can never be fully known, no matter how many Hollywood treatments her life inspires.
As a constitutional monarchy, our system of government acknowledges Her Majesty the Queen as our head of state. That close connection binds all members of the Commonwealth. Of course, there are many political questions that remain to be discussed. Today is not that day. Today, we honour and mourn a remarkable woman who loved this country and its citizens, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who set a standard that is unparalleled.
My seatmate and colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands had wished to be here this morning and I know she has cherished various encounters with the royal family. Although she did not meet with the Queen, the Queen's husband, the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, and his son, now the King, were very active in the conservation of nature and environmental causes. Her Majesty shared those concerns.
What endeared her to so many of us were her playful encounters. The Prime Minister just referenced her quips that he made her feel old, as in 2015 at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta, when she poked fun at him for publicly making her feel ancient.
Personally, I think it is fabulous that Noel Coward so loved the Queen and the Queen Mother for their mischievous senses of humour.
As we reflect on the Queen's life and the road ahead, let us hold the duty of reconciliation with indigenous people across the country.
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- Sep/15/22 10:53:53 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for generations of Canadians, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was a constant in a world filled with change. Even when she was 96 years of age, many of us felt like she would always be there. After all, she had been a part of so much of our history. She was our Queen, so it feels almost unreal to declare “God save the King”.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited Canada more often than any other country on earth. I remember with great clarity Her Majesty's visit to Stratford in 1997 to view a scene from The Taming of the Shrew at the Stratford Festival. I remember watching her helicopter land in the aptly named Lower Queen's Park. I then ran to Upper Queen's Park and stood on a lawn chair six or seven rows back to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty during her walkabout. Many in our community also remember her previous visit to Stratford, in 1959, with Prince Philip for a performance of Shakespeare's As You Like It.
When our country celebrated great milestones, she was here. She was her for the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, Expo 67, the Montreal Olympics, the patriation of the Constitution, the centennials of the entry into Confederation of British Columbia and, 34 years later, for that of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1964, she was here for the 100th anniversary of the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences.
In an address at the opening of the Confederation Centre, Her Majesty The Queen reflected on her beloved Canada. She said:
We know the splendor of her achievements in peace and in the dark years of war, the esteem in which she is held in the great councils of the world, the contributions to the enrichment of the Commonwealth, the generosity and sense of responsibility toward the newly developing countries, and willingness to assume the gravest of international responsibilities—all these and much else have grown out of this great act of political statesmanship and have made Canada what she is today.
We, as members of the House of Commons, represent one of two houses of Parliament, but we also represent one of three parts of Parliament: the House of Commons, the Senate and the Crown. Indeed, the first time these three parts of Parliament formally convened was in 1957 for the opening of the 23rd Parliament. In the Speech from the Throne, the first to be delivered by the monarch, the Queen stated:
I greet you as your Queen. Together we constitute the Parliament of Canada. For the first time the representatives of the people of Canada and their Sovereign are here assembled on the occasion of the opening of Parliament. This is for all of us a moment to remember.
Parliamentary government has been fashioned by the wisdom of many centuries. Its justice, authority and dignity are cherished by men of good will.
I share that quotation from 1957 because it reflects the sincerity with which Her Majesty conducted her constitutional obligations.
In Walter Bagehot's The English Constitution, he ably divides the institutions of government into two parts: the dignified and the efficient. The dignified parts are “those which excite and preserve the reverence of the population” and the efficient parts are “those by which it, in fact, works and rules.” The dignified parts are the Crown. The efficient parts are the government.
Now I am sure there have been times over the decades that Her Majesty may have wondered how efficient some of her ministers may have been, but as the ever-dignified sovereign, she respected her constitutional role.
While she was always dignified, it did not stop her from surprising us, as she did with her famous entry to the London Olympics with 007, and with her ever-so-poignant tea with Paddington Bear during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations earlier this year.
Seventy-five years ago, on her 21st birthday, Princess Elizabeth pledged that her whole life would be devoted to service. To her final days, she fulfilled that pledge of service. To paraphrase Shakespeare, we shall not look upon her like again.
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- Sep/15/22 11:15:03 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, like other members of the House, I hold in my heart today those families in Saskatchewan that are grieving because of inconceivable acts of violence. They are in our prayers today.
It is with a heavy heart that I join with my colleagues today in commemorating the life of our late sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada and head of the Commonwealth. On behalf of the people of Winnipeg South, I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to His Majesty the King and the royal family on the Queen's passing.
While we all mourn the loss of our Queen, we are also celebrating her exceptional life and historic reign. As our head of state, she set an example of selfless dedication and commitment to service that continues to inspire us all.
I had the honour of serving on the international executive of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. This year, Canada played host to over 500 delegates from across the Commonwealth, as the annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference was held in Halifax this past August.
As I met with representatives from the Commonwealth, I reflected on how notable it is that during the Queen's tenure as head of the Commonwealth, we have seen its transformation from a group of British colonies and territories to a vibrant and dynamic organization of democracies from all over the world that all freely choose to be members. In Halifax, we saluted Her Majesty on the celebration of her Platinum Jubilee and recognized her exemplary service to the Commonwealth and to humanity.
As a Manitoba MP, I would briefly like to highlight Her Majesty's six visits to our province.
The first time, Princess Elizabeth came in 1951 and attended the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. As an aside, in 1953, as Queen, she granted the Royal Winnipeg Ballet its royal title. It was the first ballet company to receive this honour under her reign.
Her second visit as Queen was in 1959 during her tour across Canada with Prince Philip.
In 1970, on a later visit, Manitoba was honoured to have the Queen join us for Manitoba's centennial, our 100th anniversary since joining Confederation. Her Majesty travelled extensively throughout our province and brought her two oldest children with her, the then Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
Her Majesty would return in 1984 to visit Winnipeg, Dauphin, Brandon and Dugald.
In 2002, during her Golden Jubilee, she came to attend the unveiling of the newly refurbished Golden Boy that graces the dome on top of the Manitoba legislature. On this visit, there was also the unfortunate incident where the Queen got to enjoy the Red River a little longer than anticipated, as her river taxi stalled on the water not once but twice. As hon. members will appreciate, she took it all in stride, as was her nature.
As another aside, in 2002 I was a proud recipient of Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee Medal for Canada.
Queen Elizabeth's final visit to Manitoba was in 2010. She brought with her a stone from Windsor Castle, where the Magna Carta was signed, and this stone remains a feature at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.
For the vast majority of Canadians, Queen Elizabeth was the only monarch we have ever known and we are slowly adjusting to life without her. She was a constant and reassuring presence in our lives, and during her reign we came into our own as a confident, diverse and forward-looking country. Canadians will look back fondly on the life and reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and will remember and cherish her wisdom, compassion and warmth.
We are now in a period of transition as we write a new chapter in the story of Canada with our new sovereign, King Charles III. Canada has a long history and close relationship with the King, who has visited many, many times, including this year when he and his wife, now Queen Consort, were part of the Queen's jubilee celebrations.
I wish King Charles strength in this sad time for him and his family. I know he will provide steady and distinguished service to Canada and the Commonwealth, as did his late mother, the Queen.
Long live the King.
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- Sep/15/22 11:29:45 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it was with heavy hearts that I and many of my constituents in Etobicoke Centre learned of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
As Canada's longest-serving sovereign, I believe she touched many Canadians. Her legacy is profound. For many Canadians, including me, Queen Elizabeth II is the only sovereign we have ever known. In an ever-changing world, she was a constant presence and devoted her life to the service of the Commonwealth and its people.
Her Majesty was only 25 years old when she ascended to the throne and took on the role of head of state of numerous countries, including Canada. She fulfilled this role with grace and dedication for 70 years. Earlier this year, Canada celebrated the Queen's 70 years of service and the enduring bonds she built with Canadians. This was the first Platinum Jubilee of a sovereign in Canada.
The significance of Her Majesty's reign was not just in the length of her service but in the importance of her service, in the role that she played in Canada's history. Her Majesty presided over many important moments in Canadian history, and she forms an important part, in my view, of Canadian history.
Since becoming Queen in 1952, Her Majesty has known 12 Canadian prime ministers and 13 governors general. Her Majesty made 22 tours to Canada as Queen. Queen Elizabeth II also participated in the patriation ceremony of the Constitution and proclaimed Canada's Constitution Act, which included the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in 1982. She watched, she presided, as Canada became an even more confident, more multicultural and more prosperous nation.
There are many reasons I believe we live in the best country on Earth. One of the reasons is our strong democracy and the conventions and the institutions that underpin it, that protect it and that facilitate it. That democratic system makes Parliament supreme in making decisions on behalf of Canadians and for Canadians. It allows us to come together here in the House of Commons as representatives of the people to make decisions on behalf of the people, for the people.
To me, the role of the monarch in our country is not just ceremonial but substantive. One of the key roles of the Crown, of the monarch, is to protect that democracy, to facilitate that democracy. The Queen embodied the Crown and took on that role. Because of the importance of that role, because of the work that she did in protecting our democracy, it is important that we recognize how this has allowed those of us who have served here in the past, those of us who serve here today and future members of Parliament to continue to build the best country on Earth.
Many years ago I had the privilege of being present during a visit of Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh to Toronto. During my brief conversation with the Duke of Edinburgh, I came to appreciate the commitment of the Queen and of the Duke of Edinburgh in learning about Canadians. I believe this is one of the characteristics that made Her Majesty so invested and so effective in serving and representing our country.
One of the reasons I believe many of our hearts were so heavy when we learned of the passing of Her Majesty was that a lot of us felt as though we knew the Queen. I believe that she knew us.
Her Majesty touched millions of Canadians in a variety of ways. I believe that her service and her dedicated and graceful leadership will continue to be remembered and admired by people worldwide for many years to come.
On behalf of the constituents of Etobicoke Centre and myself, I send our heartfelt condolences to the members of the royal family, to the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth nations during this difficult time.
On behalf of the constituents of Etobicoke Centre and myself, I would also like to extend our best wishes to our new king, King Charles III. I had the privilege of meeting King Charles III when he was Prince of Wales when he visited Canada a few months ago. He exhibited that same curiosity, that same desire, I believe, to understand and know Canadians and to serve Canadians as Queen Elizabeth II did.
Long live the King.
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- Sep/15/22 11:43:38 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is a solemn day. For the first time in the lives of many of us here today, we mourn the death and commemorate the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Being our head of state for the past 70 years is an extraordinary feat, something only Her Majesty could have achieved.
As we heard all last week and in Parliament today, Her Majesty's passion, resilience and strength in serving her country and her people were fundamental characteristics that shaped her reign.
When I think of Queen Elizabeth ascending the throne at the age of 25 after the death of her father, King George VI, I cannot help but be in awe. At 25, I had just graduated from university with a social work degree, commenced a new job at the Children's Aid Society and had a beautiful, full-of-energy two-year-old daughter. At such a pivotal age, when many of us were finishing university, starting our careers, beginning our families or making our way through the world learning from adventures and failures, Her Majesty was propelled to the highest institution of governance: the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the head of the Commonwealth and the Defender of the Faith.
Queen Elizabeth's reign was shaped by some of history's most notable events. These include her early years as a princess serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War, having Sir Winston Churchill as her first prime minister, the acceleration of decolonization, the Cold War and the fall of the Iron Curtain, the deadly conflict in Ireland known as “the Troubles”, the war on terror, Brexit, and COVID-19. Despite these events emerging from British, European or global affairs, Her Majesty used her position and powers to bridge and merge people of different linguistic, cultural and political backgrounds to facilitate co-operation and collaboration toward unity, showcasing what a constitutional monarch should be.
Queen Elizabeth II's reign also covered some significant events here in Canada. She proclaimed the Canadian flag in 1965. She addressed the National Assembly of Quebec during Quebec's quiet revolution, noting how pleased she was that there was a place in the Commonwealth where people could speak in French. She opened the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976, and, of course, she signed the proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1982, which created the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982.
The admiration that Queen Elizabeth II had for Canada is undeniable. During her time on the throne, the Queen made 22 state visits to Canada, making Canada her most-visited Commonwealth country. During those visits to Canada, Her Majesty toured the country, sponsored charitable works, attended ceremonies, opened Parliament in 1957 and delivered a Speech from the Throne in 1977.
Her Majesty's first state visit as Queen was in 1957, when she and her late husband spent four days here in Ottawa. However, that was not Elizabeth's first trip to Canada. As some of my colleagues have mentioned, Princess Elizabeth, as she was then known, visited Canada in 1951 on behalf of her father, who, unfortunately, was being treated for lung cancer.
I will share some aspects of that trip. Her Majesty shooks hands at the rate of 30,000 times per week, heard the national anthem played 150 times, met 53 mayors, inspected 24 guards of honour, accepted official bouquets from 23 children and signed 21 golden books. Let me remind everyone that this all occurred in 33 days.
Queen Elizabeth's royal tour of Canada in 1951 was an instrumental occurrence that influenced her reign as Queen in the years to come. Her Majesty's examples of attending the Calgary Stampede and square dancing at Rideau Hall, which, I should add, made its way onto popular Christmas cards, illustrate a modern monarchy willing to connect with younger people and reflect the civil and societal changes of the times. We should have known then that she was destined to be a queen for the modern age.
On behalf of our community of Orléans, which I have the privilege to represent, I would like to extend my sincere condolences to the royal family, who lost a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother, as well as to the extended family and to the people of the United Kingdom.
As we continue to commemorate the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, we also usher in the reign of His Majesty King Charles III. I am confident that His Majesty will carry on with his vow to follow his mother's inspirational example of public service, illustrating the Crown's dedication, resilience and strength in upholding the principle of constitutional government and the values that we, as a Commonwealth nation, share and relish.
God save the King.
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- Sep/15/22 11:50:12 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am honoured, saddened and humbled to stand in this House to pay tribute to our monarch and sovereign Queen Elizabeth II in front of her representatives of the Commonwealth nation of Canada. It is a responsibility I do not take lightly, as it is nearly impossible to adequately convey the importance of a life that has helped shape our nation for nearly half its existence.
I would like to begin by quoting Her Majesty herself, not from a period during her reign, but from the speech the young princess delivered in Cape Town, South Africa, on her 21st birthday in 1947. She said:
I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.
But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.
Her declaration that her whole life would be devoted to service, regardless of its length, would follow her as she became the longest-serving British monarch and the second longest-serving monarch in history.
Another important quote was while touring Canada for her golden jubilee in 2002 when she said:
I treasure my place in the life of Canada, and my bond with Canadians everywhere.... It is my privilege to serve you as Queen of Canada to the best of my ability, to play my part in the Canadian identity, to uphold Canadian traditions and heritage, to recognize Canadian excellence and achievement and to seek to give a sense of continuity in these exciting, ever-changing times in which we are fortunate enough to live.
She loved this nation, its people, its traditions and its identity, as she visited Canada 22 times over the course of her 70 years as sovereign. With that in mind, I spent a significant amount of time considering the best way to pay tribute to a person who, for all accounts, will be written about for decades, if not centuries, in history books. Those stories will be told, but what may not be told to the extent that is necessary is the impact she had on people throughout the nation.
She always expressed such a joy in the Canadian identity, and I want to take some time to highlight thoughts and memories of the bonds Canadians shared with her. However, before I get to that, I want to give a nod to one of my constituents, Luc Morrissette of Alpine Flowers & Gifts in Elliot Lake, who has a memorial guest book on display, which will be forwarded to the palace to commemorate the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
I would like to begin the memories and thoughts shared with that of Douglas Elliott's Facebook post. He wrote, “The death of Queen Elizabeth II marks the end of an era for Canada, and in many ways, for our world.
“She was the last world leader who was a veteran of World War II. Like most Canadians, I cannot remember a time before she became our Queen.
“I never had the pleasure of meeting Her Majesty, who was renowned for her dry wit and personal charm. However, I did see her in person twice.
“The first time was in July of 1959, when I was not quite 3 years old. The Queen came to Canada to open the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the new Royal Yacht Britannia toured the Great Lakes. One of the stops was in Parry Sound, and my mother took me to see Her Majesty. I am told that when my mother pointed out that the pretty young woman waving to the crowd was the Queen, I proudly responded ‘I know!’
“I don't really remember that sighting, but I do remember the second. It was in 1984 at Queen's Park. Coincidentally, the Toronto Star's published image of the walkabout captured myself and my Great Aunt Grace beaming at our Queen with joy. I was struck first by how tiny she was, with an erect military posture, a good figure and an impeccable complexion. Not a hair was out of place. She was like a perfect little porcelain doll, and beautifully dressed.
“I will remember Her Majesty best for her role in presiding over the patriation of our Constitution and the creation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. The Queen had a good sense of humour and she was known to take delight when things went slightly awry on official occasions. Jean Chrétien (who was the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs at the time) acknowledged that Her Majesty spoke excellent French, and she often conversed with him in French. I personally confirmed this royal story with him.”
Douglas' post was accompanied by a photo, and he explained, “The photo was taken on that blustery day on Parliament Hill in April of 1982 at the official signing ceremony for the new Constitution. Chrétien looks grim, while the Queen is grinning. Apparently, his pen malfunctioned, and as he reached for another he muttered ‘merde!’ The Queen heard him and chuckled.”
Douglas then writes, “Rest in peace, good and loyal servant, and may flights of angels sing you to your rest.”
Douglas received the following responses.
Ralph Carl Wushke wrote, “I must be a more loyal subject as I saw her at least six times, including when she stepped out on the caboose of the Royal Train in Broadview, Saskatchewan to greet the Chiefs of three First Nations: Cowessess, Ochapowace, Kahkewistahaw, all in Treaty 2 territory and the farmer settler families. I was 5 and it's the most vivid pre-school memory I have to this day. She was wearing powder blue. It was high summer.”
Shelley Heinrich wrote, “In 2010, she came to Waterloo. My husband was part of her security detail. I was on a day off and as he was doing the escort. He let me know when they would be passing by our little town on the highway that cuts thru. My husband sent me a single text which read: ‘The Eagle has left the Nest’. His way of letting me know when to get Hailey to the intersection where we saw her. Neither one of us wanted to compromise her safety on her route.
“We were both very fortunate to have been a part of her visit. I walked Hailey down. She was 2 at the time. Hailey waved like crazy at the Queen and the Duke as they drove by. Both waved at her and the Queen waved at Hailey exactly how Hailey waved at her. Open hand, fingers out and a little twist at the wrist with that broad smile. The Duke raised his hand and with a smile gave a little wave. We were the only two standing there. They didn't have to, but they did. Hailey just shrieked with delight!”
Debra Pain Mallon wrote, “My uncle was the Reeve of Muskoka and my cousin had the honour of presenting flowers to the Queen. Such a gracious lady. She is with Philip now. She will be deeply missed.”
Janet Babcock wrote, “My then spouse and I were invited guests to the signing of the Constitution as he was an assistant to a Cabinet Minister. It was not only blustery but near the end of the signing it began to rain heavily. We were sitting behind Andy Haydon, then Regional Chair of the Region of Ottawa Carleton. He was bald and the rain poured off his head onto my rather stylish clothes and hat as we were all trying to imitate Princess Diana. We got a signed copy of the program with signatures from Trudeau, Chrétien and Paul Martin. It is in a box somewhere in my basement. An historic day no doubt!”
The AFN national chief, RoseAnne Archibald issued the following statement on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:
Like many, Queen Elizabeth II is the only British monarch I have ever known in my lifetime. Throughout her reign, she has been an influential role model for generations of women and will be remembered for normalising and evolving the perception of strong, female leadership. My condolences are with King Charles III and all members of the British royal family as they grieve the loss of their matriarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
I also want to share the thoughts from Kate Matuszewski. She posted, “What a sad day in history we are all sharing in today. My heart is heavy.
“Your Majesty, Ma'am, thank you for your lifelong dedication to duty and service to our Great Britain and the Commonwealth. Throughout your reign you have led by example with strength and dignity. You have lifted us up when times were hard and given us hope; you have walked among us, your subjects, and shown us compassion, loyalty, dedication, grace, intelligence, warmth, humour, and love.
“You have endeared yourself to all of us and been a shining example. For many of us, you have been our only Queen in our lifetimes! Today I mourn your passing and wish you God speed to your beloved Prince Philip, and the peace you richly deserve. God bless you, Ma'am, you have made an indelible mark on the world and in history. What a long and glorious life you have lived. I am so proud to be British and to have been raised in such a great country with its magnificent history, values and traditions. Thank you for your service. Rest in Peace.”
In response, Kimberly MacVoy Arnold wrote, “So deeply saddened by this news. I've long admired Her Royal Majesty. May she rest peacefully and may her family find comfort and strength in the coming days of the long goodbye she most graciously earned and deserves.”
Gladys Wiggins wrote, “I saw her in Kapuskasing, Ontario, as a young child. It was just before her coronation. Back then I knew this was a special event and that she was a special lady. Rest in Peace, Queen Elizabeth.”
Erika MacLellan wrote, “I remember seeing her as a small child when she came to visit my hometown. My mother took me and my playmate, all dressed in our Sunday best, waving our flags as the Queen and Prince Philip drove slowly by, standing in their black open convertible waving and smiling to the crowds. I still can see it and remembering as if it was yesterday. My mom then took us for a treat.”
Reverend Valerie Isaac's Facebook post reads, “Rest well, Your Majesty. You promised to serve for your life, however long or short. It has been an Elizabethan era that has concluded. Our sympathies to King Charles III, and the rest of the Royal Family.”
I hope that by sharing these stories and these insights, we may get a better sense of how Canadians are grieving the loss of their monarch and, by extension, the impact that she has had on the lives of people of this country.
May Her Majesty rest in peace.
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- Sep/15/22 12:07:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise today to reflect, on my part and on behalf of the constituents of Wellington—Halton Hills, on the passing of Her Majesty the Queen.
While Queen Elizabeth was our queen and our head of state, she was also a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother. My thoughts are with King Charles and with the royal family.
During my time as a member of Parliament, I have been asked, “Who is the most important person you have ever met during your travels?” My response has always been, “The Queen.” She was a model of unflagging dedication to public service. At 21, she said, “My whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service.” She spent her whole life fulfilling that commitment.
During the Second World War and before she became queen, like a million Canadians, she served in the armed forces and trained as a mechanic.
The Queen's reign began on February 6, 1952. At that time, Louis St-Laurent was prime minister. Since then, she has worked with 12 Canadian prime ministers, and she has witnessed and overseen nation-building transformations of our country.
For seven decades, she did everything Canada asked of her without crisis or controversy. The Supreme Court became firmly established as the final court of appeal in Canada during her reign, ending the final appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
On February 15, 1965, she issued the royal proclamation that established the iconic red and white maple leaf as our national flag.
In 1982, she came to this place, Parliament Hill, to sign the royal proclamation that repatriated our Constitution from the United Kingdom and reaffirmed our constitutional monarchy here in Canada.
Queen Elizabeth was the only monarch I have ever known. She is the only monarch my wife Carrie and our children have ever known. She is the only monarch that most Canadians have ever known. She has been part of our lives over so many decades, in so many ways.
When my father was a young man in Hong Kong, Queen Elizabeth was his queen. When he immigrated to Canada in 1952, Queen Elizabeth remained his queen.
When I was a young boy, my cousins in Hong Kong and I used to exchange letters to keep up to date on what was going on in the family. We would write to each other, and on the letter mail we sent back and forth was a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen. In one direction it said “Canada” and in the other direction it said “Hong Kong”. These stamps made me realize as a young boy that what bound us together between Canada and Hong Kong was not just family ties, but also institutions based on freedoms, liberties and the rule of law. Today, millions of Hong Kongers remember Queen Elizabeth fondly, not just as a person but as an institution that represented freedoms and liberties that are now sadly being taken away.
I remember as a young boy watching the patriation ceremony of 1982 here on Parliament Hill, where the Queen signed the royal proclamation that patriated our Constitution and established the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I also have fond memories of going to primary school in rural Ontario in the 1970s, when every single morning we would sing O Canada and God Save the Queen.
For some, the Queen's passing has been an emotional time. My wife Carrie's Auntie Pam shared this memory with us on the Queen's passing, and asked us to share it with others.
“On Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, on June 24, 1959, my dad, myself and a few friends were on the roof of my apartment building overlooking Westmount City Hall, where the Queen and Prince Philip were being presented with a jug of maple syrup. My father shouted to his friends to hurry up to the front of the building, and the royal couple heard him, looked up, smiled and waved. It made his day.
“The following day dad wanted to drive us to see the Royal Yacht Britannia and the Queen and Duke coming ashore. It was quite a long drive and en route a car door was opened in front of us and Dad had to swerve suddenly. On arrival at the ship, we walked a relatively short distance, and we were very close to the gangway. He suddenly collapsed and died instantly, and our lives changed dramatically.
“The Queen and Prince Philip had to delay disembarking from the yacht while an ambulance took Dad away. I've always wondered what the Queen was told about the delay in disembarking from the Royal Yacht Britannia.”
The Queen, our longest reigning monarch, reigned so long that her reign stretched across generations and across time. One could walk into a Royal Canadian Legion branch, a small branch in some small community in rural Canada, and see a portrait of a very young woman, about 25 years of age, and suddenly realize that it is the Queen, and realize that someone had carefully hung and preserved that portrait some 70 years ago on the wall of that legion.
Many Canadian families have cookie tins, passed along from generation to generation, of the coronation that took place in 1952. They are brought out at Christmastime and filled with the recipes that have been passed from family generation to family generation.
Carrie and I had the privilege of meeting Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip in 2010 during one of the more than 20 times she came to Canada. It was at a state dinner at the Royal York Hotel, where hundreds of guests were in attendance. She greeted every one of those guests, patiently greeting them in a waiting line. After dinner was completed, she met with the hotel workers who had served the dinner and cleaned the rooms, something she insisted on doing.
Let me finish by saying that we shall not see the likes of Queen Elizabeth again. We mourn her passing. May she rest in peace and may she rise in glory.
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- Sep/15/22 12:41:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is always a privilege to rise in this House, but today I and all of our colleagues do so with the heaviest of hearts. At around this moment last Thursday, it “pleased Almighty God to call to His Mercy our late Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth the Second of Blessed and Glorious Memory”, to borrow the words of the first of many accession proclamations made last weekend.
In the week which has intervened, we have witnessed and, indeed, ourselves have felt the shock, grief and reflections that have been felt in every corner of the globe ever since. For me, some of my own reflections have been upon the genuine honour and privilege I have had to have been received in audience by Her Majesty on two occasions. First, as speaker of the House, I was there with my counterpart, Noël Kinsella, speaker of the Senate at the time, to present the addresses which both Houses of our Parliament had voted to present to Her Majesty, on the occasion of the Queen's 2012 Diamond Jubilee and in 2013 following the birth of our future king, the current Prince George.
Since the House has adopted an address to our new King Charles III, the Speaker may find himself having an audience soon with His Majesty to present him with our Parliament's formal condolences. I am reminded of a personal anecdote of such an audience.
Before the Speaker meets the King, he will be presented with a briefing on protocol. We were all told what to do and what not to do. I asked the protocol officer how we would know when the meeting had ended. He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said, “Oh, you will know.” Sure enough, at one point in the conversation when it was clear Her Majesty had exchanged enough pleasantries, out came a box with a button on it. She very gently pressed on it and moments later, the equerry came into the room and the meeting was over. I am sure there are many people throughout Canada who wish they had that kind of box when they are having meetings that they would like to get out of.
On both occasions when I had that privilege, I can say that Her Majesty's warmth and interest in Canadian matters remarkably shone through. Those various reports members might hear or read about Queen Elizabeth being incredibly well informed about Canadian and world matters certainly accord with my own personal experiences, yet her love of Canada was not just about being well briefed on the news. Canada was tangibly present in her life. She made 22 official visits as Queen and one as Princess Elizabeth, more here than any other country.
Her longest visit to Canada in 1959 covered 45 days and 24,000 kilometres. On that trip, she performed her official duties with equal parts grace and grit as she fought through morning sickness to complete her gruelling itinerary. Canada was very much her second home. On a royal tour in 1983 which included both the United States and Canada, as she prepared to fly from California to Vancouver, she told the press, “I am going home to Canada tomorrow.”
Some members may be aware that Her Majesty's favourite horse ever was Burmese, the first of the horses gifted by the RCMP, that was foaled in Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan. The Queen rode Burmese at every Trooping of the Colour for 18 consecutive years, from 1969 to 1988, and on many other occasions, like the time she was famously photographed riding with Ronald Reagan. When Burmese retired, the Queen never rode to the Trooping of the Colour again, preferring to travel by carriage. A statue of Queen Elizabeth riding Burmese can be found in Regina, the queen city, a city I proudly represent.
We know that the people of Saskatchewan were in her thoughts right up until the end. Her final public statement a little over a week ago was to the people of Saskatchewan, specifically of the James Smith Cree Nation and Weldon, to tell them that she was grieving with them and mourning their loss. The day before that, we all saw the news and photos of her appointing a new British prime minister, her 15th. That Her Majesty, in her mid-nineties, was working right up until literally her very last days is a testament to her understanding of the responsibilities to which she was called by fate.
When she was 21, she gave a radio address that has been replayed many times in recent days. In it she declared, “my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service”. She was a young woman then, barely out of childhood, thrust by her uncle's unexpected abdication into a lifetime of service. It was an awe-inspiring promise for such a young person to make with such conviction. She knew even at that young age that there would be no relaxing retirement for her, however well-earned it would have been. Her duties would end only in death, as indeed they did.
In her last official photo she is standing beside the fireplace at Balmoral, and she exudes warmth and wisdom, though she must have known the end of her service was only a few days away. She was duty personified to the very last. That devotion to service, which our late Queen typified for the near century she lived and which she witnessed her father demonstrate so remarkably especially during the Second World War, was all the more remarkable since neither of them was meant to be the monarch from birth. It is the same example our new sovereign, King Charles III, witnessed and felt first-hand. I am sure we can have every confidence that His Majesty will follow in their footsteps and the footsteps of their many illustrious predecessors of the past thousand years.
The memories, reflections, tributes and appreciation expressed this past week have vividly recalled for all of us the majesty and magic of our constitutional monarchy, the continuity it provides and the bedrock of stability it forms. Other countries may pledge allegiance to flags, which blow unpredictably with the political winds, but our allegiance is to the Canadian Crown, which connects us in a direct line to the historic source of our Constitution. It is a living tradition of order and liberty that is renewed with each generation.
The other day I was recalling how the role of the Crown in our parliamentary democracy reminded me of the so-called parable of Chesterton's fence. In his 1929 book, The Thing, G.K. Chesterton wrote of a fence that some reform-minded folks would tear down because they did not understand its purpose, while other more cautious types would first seek to understand the original purpose of the fence and whether it was satisfying those needs. Basically, the lesson is do not destroy what we do not understand.
I suspect after this week many more will truly understand the meaningful role of the Canadian monarchy, A Crown of Maples, and that will be yet one more legacy of Her Majesty's remarkable reign. There is no doubt the Crown has helped shape Canada, but we should not view the monarchy or the Crown as some kind of foreign institution. Canada and the Crown are intertwined, and Canada has had an impact on the Crown itself.
Our francophone colleagues from Quebec are familiar with the history of our people here in North America, and they know that certain events had a significant impact on the Crown.
For example, it was the Quebec Act that first gave religious liberties to Catholics, paving the way for religious tolerance throughout the entire British Empire. That innovation that was used here in North America to help bring two peoples together changed the way Catholics, and ultimately religious minorities, were treated throughout the entire globe. We can take credit here in Canada for that legacy, the change that we effected on our system of government, and through it, the entire world and the entire British Empire. It was the Quebec Act that first established the principle that one can be loyal to the sovereign while still practising whatever faith one chooses.
When someone serves so diligently for as long as Queen Elizabeth did, it is tempting to think that they will continue forever. Perhaps that is why, although her death was not unexpected, it still moves us so deeply. We have lost someone who was part of the backdrop of our lives for as long as most of us in this House can remember. Although she is gone, we will be reminded of her for years to come. We will probably encounter her unexpectedly, when we empty coins from our pockets or rummage for stamps at the back of a drawer and we suddenly see that familiar regal profile again. In those moments we will pause and smile as we remember the life of an extraordinary woman and an exemplary Queen.
God bless Queen Elizabeth, and God save the King.
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- Sep/15/22 12:58:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is with sorrow that I rise to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of my constituents in Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge. I offer condolences to His Majesty King Charles III and the entire royal family.
Queen Elizabeth II was probably the most well-known woman in the entire world. She was an inspiration to hundreds of millions of people for her grace, service, kindness, leadership and example.
As Canada mourns our longest-reigning monarch, we remember her historic service to the British Commonwealth of Nations, her grace, her leadership and her kindness, which inspired many and had an impact on millions of lives.
At 96 years of age, for the vast majority, she has been with us for all of our lives. We knew that she would not be with us forever, but still her passing came as a surprise because she was in the public eye a couple of days beforehand meeting with the new Prime Minister of Britain, Liz Truss. Outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson said on that day that she was “bright and focused” and that his weekly meetings with the Queen were “a wonderful moment of tranquility” and “a fantastic break from everything else”. There is a sense of loss: national loss and personal loss.
I started collecting stamps when I was a child back in the sixties. Back then, one could send a letter across Canada for 4¢. Then it was 5¢, 6¢, 8¢, and now we do not even put a numerical value on the stamps. However, hers was the lovely face on those stamps. On our pennies, and I do have a jarful, nickels, dimes and quarters, on one side is the maple leaf, the beaver, the caribou or the Bluenose schooner and on the other side is her face. We literally carried her with us. She was not only the Queen of Britain but also the Queen of Canada, our Queen, and the longest-serving Queen in Commonwealth, British and Canadian history.
Canada is the third most enduring democracy in the world, which is no small feat. Only the United Kingdom and the United States have been democracies for longer. The stability of our parliamentary system contrasts with so much of the rest of the world, which has undergone revolutions and wars or been under oppressive rule.
We are a constitutional monarchy whereby the Queen, and now the King, are the official head of state under the rule of law in a parliament chosen by the people. The roots of our freedom trace back to the Magna Carta Libertatum, which is Latin for the great charter of freedoms. It was signed to make peace between King John and unhappy barons in 1215, some 800 years ago.
There are symbols of the Crown everywhere in the country, in government and here in Parliament. For example, the Mace, which is before us here, is a symbol of the authority of the sovereign Queen, and now the King, and the power of the House of Commons. The Crown is the institution upon which our entire system of government rests. It is on the authority of the Crown that we uphold democracy, peace, justice and order in Canada. We should never doubt that the Crown is indeed a Canadian institution.
During the American Revolution, Quebec could have joined the other American colonies. We must not forget that the British had conquered New France only 15 or so years earlier, but French Canadians decided that it was much better to remain a colony under England's king and Parliament to better protect their language, religion and freedoms.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was proud of the fact that Canada was a francophone nation and insisted on speaking French at every opportunity.
Queen Elizabeth exemplified service and set the standard for all leaders to follow.
As has been mentioned, on her 21st birthday in 1947, she broadcasted to the world from South Africa, “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service”.
Queen Elizabeth II did live a life of service. In fact, she served in the military during World War II against Nazism as a second lieutenant. On her first televised speech in 1957, she said, “I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice. But I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion”.
Happily, she did live a long life.
On August 28th, just a few days before her passing, I held an outdoor ceremony to award Platinum Jubilee Awards in honour of Her Majesty’s 70 years of reign and in recognition of my constituents’ dedication to community service.
It was a very special time recognizing some of well-known people and others who are not well known. I think of one gentleman who, for many years, has walked for about 10 kilometres a day, and he brings with him a garbage bag to collect garbage along his way. He says he wants to keep fit, but we all benefit from his service.
On her Platinum Jubilee, she said, “When it comes to how to mark 70 years as your Queen, there is no guidebook to follow. It really is a first.... I remain committed to serving you to the best of my ability, supported by my family.”
She said, “While I may not have attended every event in person, my heart has been with you all”.
The Queen had her own style. According to her biographer, as the Queen was quite petite, she felt that it was important to be seen in order to be believed. With that in mind, she chose to wear outfits of bright colours in her public engagements.
With colour-coordinated hats and umbrellas, it was hard to lose sight of the Queen even when it was raining cats and dogs. She kept the same style for decades: monochromatic, colourful and eye-catching, yet unflashy. She said that no one would recognize her if she wore more drab clothing.
She once said, “Grief is the price we pay for love.” As we grieve the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, it is because of our affection for her, and this sorrow is in response to the love she had for her subjects over many, many years.
As a member of His Majesty's loyal opposition, I join my colleagues in offering my full support to our new king, His Majesty King Charles III.
God save the King. Long may he reign.
I will close with this final quote from the Queen: “Each day is a new beginning. I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God.”
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- 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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- Sep/15/22 1:17:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the royal family during this most heart-wrenching time. Her Majesty's sense of duty to Canada, along with her commitment to other members of the Commonwealth, was continually demonstrated through her noble actions. I know I speak for many when I say we are forever grateful for her devotion to this country.
“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service.” These are the famously remembered remarks from the speech that Princess Elizabeth made on her 21st birthday, in 1947. This vow was more than promised; it was undeniably fulfilled.
In 1951, two years prior to her coronation, Princess Elizabeth made a visit to my riding of Brantford—Brant. It was the first of three times that Her Majesty visited my riding. She was accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, and the couple passed through the city on their way to review cadets at the Royal Military College in Kingston.
In 1984, Her Majesty made her second visit to Brantford. Over 4,000 people, including me and my parents, gathered at Her Majesty's Royal Chapel of the Mohawks, one of Canada's three royal chapels, where she unveiled a plaque recognizing the chapel as Upper Canada's first Anglican church. She also declared the land as a Canadian national historic site for being the oldest surviving church in Ontario.
On that same tour, she visited the Six Nations of the Grand River, which is also located in my riding. The Six Nations commemorate the close ties between the Six Nations and the British Crown annually on Victoria Day, by organizing a “Bread & Cheese” day.
As many know, my riding is also known as the Telephone City. Alexander Graham Bell's family immigrated to Canada and settled on a small piece of farmland just outside the city. On Her Majesty's third and final visit to Brantford in 1997, she paid a visit to the Bell Homestead, the historic site where Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, acknowledging the achievements made by Mr. Bell along with his significance in Canadian history. On this tour, the Queen also dined at the Olde School Restaurant, which is still in operation today and is adorned with photos preserving that moment in history for its customers to continue to enjoy.
I am thankful that many constituents across my riding have taken the time to contact my office, sharing the memories of her visits, expressing the feelings of excitement, joy, hope and kindness that they had when she came, and saying that her presence was unforgettable. The Queen's visits to Brantford are clearly just one illustration of how, during her reign, she was a vigorous participant in Canadian historic evolution and a genuine advocate for the future success of our country.
Over her 70 years, Queen Elizabeth made 22 official trips to Canada. Throughout her reign, she witnessed the rise and fall of 12 prime ministers. Canada is the country that the Queen spent the most time in; thus it is safe to say that the Queen has a special place here in Canada and we are thrilled to serve as her home away from home. Her Majesty's commitment to Canada only just began when she was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom in 1952 and became the first monarch to open the doors of our Parliament in 1957. Queen Elizabeth was the first monarch to be crowned Queen of Canada, and she dedicated her life to public service.
Following in the unforgettable footsteps of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who had approved the federation act of 1867, Queen Elizabeth II went on to grant the Constitution Act of 1982 with royal assent. It was her influence on this legislation that made the foundation for Canada to amend its Constitution and allowed the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to become law. For many, Canada entered a new era, an era full of patriation and pride.
Millions of people around the world, in Canada and across the other 14 countries in which the Queen was head of state, are mourning. During her reign, Elizabeth travelled to 117 countries, including 56 Commonwealth states, and presided over 2.5 billion residents. She was undoubtedly the world's most travelled world leader, and her visits certainly played an important role in spreading democratic values throughout the globe throughout the last 70 years.
In her 1947 speech, she encouraged everyone to make the Commonwealth freer, happier, more prosperous and a more powerful influence for good in the world. She said, “To accomplish that we must give nothing less than the whole of ourselves.” She did exactly that, and we must continue to uphold that vow.
Her Majesty's commitment to all realms of the Commonwealth will forever be cherished, and her leadership, commitment and inspiration will forever live on. The passing of Her Majesty was heartbreaking. Serving as the United Kingdom's longest-reigning sovereign, there is no doubt that the mark she left is truly monumental. It has been both an honour and a privilege to serve the citizens of Brantford—Brant as a member of Her Majesty's loyal opposition. She showed us how to lead, gave us hope and set the best example of service above self, and for that we owe her enormous gratitude.
May God grant her eternal rest.
Now, I would like to take this opportunity and stand very proudly, as a member of the riding of Brantford—Brant, and swear my allegiance to King Charles III.
God save the King.
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- Sep/15/22 1:48:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is both a great honour and a sad responsibility to stand in the House today, on behalf of the people of Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in this special commemorative session. For me, today is another one of those moments that so many of us never imagined being part of. I think we are all still in a bit of shock, because despite her advanced age, we really had not begun to think about or contemplate a world without the only head of state that most of us have known our whole lives.
It is an inspiring reminder of just how long and in how many ways the Queen served all of us to note that not only was she our longest serving monarch, but Queen Elizabeth was among the dwindling group of veterans who proudly served in World War II. In early 1945, as a young woman of 19, she joined the British Auxiliary Territorial Service, becoming the first female member of the royal family on active duty, where she served in non-traditional roles in learning how to drive and maintain vehicles, an interest she maintained for the rest of her life.
When we think of her long reign, it is important to remember that her accession to the throne really was doubly unexpected. In 1936, the unexpected abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII, made her heir to the throne at age 11. Then, the early and equally unexpected death of her father, King George VI, in 1952, thrust her into the role of Queen at the age of 26.
However, Queen Elizabeth seemed to have intuitively understood from the beginning that the role of constitutional monarch requires a broad knowledge and a depth of understanding of both politics and world affairs in order to carry out the role of Queen effectively. She worked very hard at making sure that she was fulfilling that role in the best way she could. She knew that although her powers were in fact very few, they remained very significant.
I apologize here for still being a recovering political scientist even after 11 years in the House, but I do think that an understanding of the role of constitutional monarch is important to understanding just how good a queen Queen Elizabeth II was.
By the 1860s, British constitutional scholar Walter Bagehot famously asserted that only three rights remained to the British sovereign: the right to be consulted, the right to encourage and the right to warn, a clear statement of the line between governing and reigning in a constitutional monarchy. While the Queen could exercise those rights in private, other important functions of the monarchy always required that those rights be exercised only in private. Those other important functions are to serve as a guarantee of constitutional government, to guarantee continuity of government and to provide a symbol of national unity above politics.
It was the passage of the Statute of Westminster by the U.K. Parliament in 1931 that created a separate Canadian monarchy in law. This act also clarified that the Canadian Governor General was the direct representative of the sovereign and not the U.K. government. At the same time, it confirmed the well-established precedent that the few reserve powers of the monarchy, those largely revolving around the appointment and dismissal of prime ministers, could only be discharged by the Canadian Governor General and not the Crown. What was left to British monarchs, now established legally as our Canadian monarchs? It was almost nothing, except, again, guaranteeing constitutional government, guaranteeing continuity and guaranteeing national unity.
While some have trouble seeing a monarch as a symbol of continuity and of the state and unity, personally, I see this concept as providing a key advantage by separating the concept of loyalty from politics. There are other solutions to this problem, but none are so simple and reliable as a constitutional monarchy. That is why there are so many constitutional monarchs among the great democracies of the world, not just Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and other members of the Commonwealth, but also Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Norway and Japan.
Today, we need to remind ourselves how much Queen Elizabeth II has come to represent the model constitutional monarch and exemplify the strengths of constitutional monarchy. In our system, the fact that loyalty is expressed toward the Crown protects us from the worst ravages of civil discord. Our oaths are sworn to the Crown and not to the politicians of the day. This means, as some of us like to point out, that everyone can feel free to oppose the Prime Minister without having our loyalty to Canada being questioned. We have seen the dangers of unifying symbolic and political roles in a single person and how that is still playing out in our neighbour to the south.
Queen Elizabeth's long life has caused many to take for granted a second strength of constitutional monarchy, which is continuity. She saw 12 Canadian prime ministers, from Louis St. Laurent to our current Prime Minister, 12 B.C. premiers, from W.A.C. Bennett to John Horgan, and countless other provincial premiers come and go. It is not a surprise given that she served Canada for nearly half of our time as an independent country.
When a constitutional monarch dies, there is no doubt about the continuity of the institution, as their heirs automatically assume the throne. When prime ministers leave office, in turn the constitutional monarchy guarantees there will be someone there to make sure the job is filled.
At this point, I want to acknowledge that the symbol of the Crown has differing meanings for first nations in this country, and I express my respect for those who have different understandings of the role and responsibilities of the sovereign as they relate to first nations. I acknowledge that this understandably results in differing and diverse reactions to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II among first nations.
Now, after my long digression on the role of the monarchy, let me return to the long reign of Queen Elizabeth in less theoretical terms.
She did this job with incredible grace and dignity, in good times and bad, and always under the relentless scrutiny of the press and public. However, somehow, despite the limitations inherent in her role, Queen Elizabeth still managed to let the person she was shine through. I am going to recount two stories that illustrate this for me, although neither is my own story. I trust the owners will not mind, as they have told these stories publicly before.
A few days ago, Dmitriy Shapiro reminded us of the story of the Queen's meeting with Holocaust survivors at the 60th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz in 2005, as recounted by late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Sacks wrote about the Queen's attendance where she met with Holocaust survivors, and while protocol and scheduling normally kept the Queen to a very tight schedule, with the Queen usually being ushered away promptly by her staff at the end of her appearance, on this occasion Queen Elizabeth refused to leave. She remained, speaking individually to members of the large group who had gathered. One of her attendants told Rabbi Sacks that they had never seen her stay so long after a scheduled departure. Let me quote Rabbi Sacks:
She gave each survivor—it was a large group—her focused, unhurried attention. She stood with each until they had finished telling their personal story. It was an act of kindness that almost had me in tears. One after another, the survivors came to me in a kind of trance, saying: “Sixty years ago I did not know if I would be alive tomorrow, and here I am today talking to the queen.” It brought a kind of blessed closure into deeply lacerated lives.
My second story, more brief, demonstrates the Queen's compassion. It has been told by Catherine Clark, who was stuck, as a 10-year-old, at a reception of a Commonwealth heads of government meeting. When she said she wanted to leave, she was told that no one could leave before the Queen, so she waited by the door. A short time later, the Queen came by and asked why she was still at the reception after all this time. Catherine told the Queen that she was waiting for her to leave first, to which the Queen responded, “Well, let’s go then, shall we?” Then she took her hand and off they went.
There are so many more stories of this kind, stories of her kindness and genuine interest in the ordinary people she served. She has touched so many individuals and families. Even in my own family, my uncle, John Garrison, now in his eighties, still likes to recount the story of serving as part of an honour guard when Queen Elizabeth placed a wreath at the Canadian cross on a visit to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington in 1957. He recalls standing along the red carpet when she passed, close enough to reach out and touch her, although he says with a glint in his eye, “Even at a young age I understood that things wouldn't go well for me if I actually did that.”
My own experiences with the Queen were always at a greater distance, including being on the streets of Ottawa in 1983 when the Queen came to preside over the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution and in 1994 when she came to the Commonwealth Games in Victoria. On those occasions, I saw the genuine affection for the Queen first-hand.
My closest personal connection to Queen Elizabeth came at the time of her Diamond Jubilee. One way the Queen chose to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee was by awarding medals for community service, which is so fitting for a monarch whose whole life was one of exemplary service. It was a great honour as a member of Parliament to award those medals in my riding on her behalf, and it meant so much to the recipients.
Queen Elizabeth's love for Canada was shown by her many visits: 22 as a sovereign in total, I am told, including seven visits to British Columbia, with stops on Vancouver Island each time. Some stops in my riding are well documented, including her visits to review cadets at what was then the Royal Roads Military College in 1951 and 1983, showcasing the close connection the royal family has always had with the Canadian Forces.
As well in 1983, the Queen unveiled a plaque at Craigflower school in my riding to commemorate it as the oldest school building still standing in western Canada.
Of course, some of her visits had greater significance, including the 1971 visit marking the 100th anniversary of British Columbia joining Confederation, the 1994 opening of the Commonwealth Games, and probably the most Canadian thing Her Majesty ever did, which was to drop the puck at a National Hockey League exhibition game between the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks in 2002.
What stands out to me in all those visits was the obvious care and attention shown to all those the Queen and other members of the royal family met. This care and attention given to all kinds of Canadians has set a powerful message of belonging and inclusion. In doing so, the Queen set a precedent that will long survive her, a precedent I have recently seen Prince William and Prince Harry follow in carrying on the legacy of Princess Diana in embracing the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
As my time draws to a close, let me extend my personal condolences, along with those of my constituents, to the royal family in this time of great personal loss, of a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother.
Let me also say that I, like many, find it hard to imagine a Canada and indeed a world without the Queen. However, in our political tradition, where precedent plays such a great role, I am confident the Queen has left us with clear guidance on how to preserve a democratic government and how to promote unity and inclusion. She has given us a powerful example of a life of service, one lived with enormous dignity and grace.
Farewell, Queen Elizabeth II. May she rest in peace.
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- Sep/15/22 2:14:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is always a privilege to be able to stand in the House. I stand here before my colleagues with mixed emotions. I am both happy to to return and see colleagues on both the government and opposition benches, who I have not had the chance to see since June, but I am deeply saddened by the events that recently took place in Saskatchewan in James Smith Cree Nation, as well as what we are here today to discuss, which is the passing of our Queen, Queen Elizabeth II.
To the families who lost loved ones in Saskatchewan, we are all thinking of them and stand with them.
I would like to send my condolences to only the royal family, but indeed also to those around the world who are mourning her passing. She was a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother, but she was also our Queen and the head of state for millions around the world.
During my time today, I would like to highlight some of the incredible contributions that the Queen made to public life during her 70‑year reign. I also want to talk about the importance of the Crown and Canada's relationship with the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy.
It goes without saying that the Queen was a dedicated public servant, and I think all of us in the House, indeed all Canadians, have probably had an opportunity to reflect on her time serving as our head of state. We recently had a national caucus in New Brunswick and there were reflections of how best to be able to move forward in her passing.
Literally 36 hours before her death, she was performing her constitutional obligations. She was performing her public service by welcoming the United Kingdom's new prime minister to form government in her name. That, at its core, is a reflection of how seriously she took her job as the sovereign of not only the United Kingdom but also the realms of the Commonwealth for which she served as the head of state. It is significant.
As has been mentioned in various speeches today, in her first address to the Commonwealth, she dedicated her life to public service. It is important to recognize that during the Second World War, Princess Elizabeth served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women's branch of the British Army, where she trained as a mechanic.
I want to take a moment to talk about Her Majesty's relationship with Canada. As has been referenced, Canada was the most visited country outside of the United Kingdom in the Commonwealth that the Queen visited. She visited Nova Scotia on five separate occasions.
I am wearing a MacLachlan tie. I have deep Scottish roots and a connection to the United Kingdom. I think about the fact that the Queen loved visiting Balmoral Castle, loved her time in Scotland, specifically as part of the Highland Games and certainly, on reflection upon her visits to Nova Scotia, particularly enjoyed our province because of those deep Scottish roots that our province shares with the mother country.
In some ways, the Queen reminded me of my grandmother. I say this in the best of terms possible. They are relatively the same age. My grandmother is now 93, born just three years after the Queen. I think we could all have an appreciation, depending on one's age I suppose, of how the Queen almost served as a grandmother to all of us, particularly those who have come of age. She was someone we might not have known, but we felt like we knew because of her presence over such a long time in Canadian history.
She spent 70 years as our head of state, which is just shy of half of the entire existence of this country. It is quite significant. I saw a statistic the other day that 9 out of 10 people living in the world right now have only ever known Queen Elizabeth as the head of state, at least in the country of Canada, and indeed only one out of 10 were born prior to her serving in her capacities.
A number of reflections have come out since Her Majesty's passing. One video that I found on social media was particularly funny. I think it probably reflects the type of person that she was.
There is a police officer who had been a part of her guard, and the video is only about a minute and a half, but the police officer goes on to explain that, during one of their walks in Scotland while he was accompanying her, there were two American tourists who ran into them along the road. It became very apparent that the tourists did not know that this was Queen Elizabeth. Without going into great detail, I would encourage colleagues to actually find the video on Twitter.
The Queen played along and said that she had not met the Queen but that her police officer had. The police officer jumped in and says, “Well, yes, I have met her. She can be cantankerous at times, but she has a great personality.” Those two American tourists, according to this story, walked away not even knowing that they had just met the head of state of Canada and of all her realm. I think the Queen's good-natured spirit is reflected in that story. I would encourage colleagues to go find it.
Of course, today our primary focus is sending our condolences, recognizing the public service of Queen Elizabeth and celebrating the ascension of King Charles III. There will undoubtedly be conversations about Canada's constitutional nature. I just want to take the opportunity in the time I have left to highlight that I am unequivocal in my belief that the Crown and the relationship that Canada shares with the United Kingdom through the constitutional monarchy is something that needs to continue. I hope to go into just a little bit of detail as to why I feel that way.
Canada's relationship with the Crown is fundamental to the development of our country. The member for Hastings—Lennox and Addington went into great detail about the history of her particular riding and the relationship with loyalists that founded the area. Nova Scotia is no different. When we look at Hants County, the relationships between the Acadians and the Loyalists who came to Nova Scotia, along with those who had Scottish roots, as I mentioned previously, were all really important relationships, along with those with indigenous people, that really helped the founding our country.
This Parliament we stand in, our Westminster tradition, was founded and borrowed from our mother country in the United Kingdom. I would be remiss if I did not mention that Nova Scotia was the first colony, the first government, outside of the United Kingdom to actually form a responsible government in 1848. These are all conventions and customs that we have inherited and that evolved in Canada. They have been built off of our tradition and our relationship with the Crown and the British monarchy.
As it has been mentioned previously, our relationship with indigenous people has not always been perfect. It has indeed been rocky. Perhaps this speaks to my naivete, but in conversation with indigenous constituents, I have been surprised at the deep connection that indigenous communities in Kings—Hants share with the Crown, particularly when talking about treaties that predate the founding of Canada. Those were signed directly with the British Crown. I am thinking about the friendship treaties of the 1700s, particularly of 1763. Those were formed, and then, of course, enshrined in our Constitution in 1982.
I thought the member for Orléans did a particularly strong job of talking about how sometimes there has been tension about how the Crown's relationship in Canada has been forged both in English and French, which shows our diversity in linguistic and cultural elements.
I have just two more points before I finish. On our international outlook and cooperation, I recognize that we do not need to be a constitutional monarchy to share our relationship with the Commonwealth. Those foundational partnerships that the United Kingdom has formed around the world gives us an international community that we can work with and rely on. In today's world, where there is a whole host of uncertainty, those partnerships and international shared experiences are extremely important for our diplomatic work in the global forum.
It is often quoted that democracy is not necessarily the best form of government but that it is the best of all the other alternatives.
When we examine our own form of government as a constitutional monarchy, we see that yes, there are other forms, but I think that those forms, whether a republic or another style of government, come with a whole host of questions. When we look at the transition between Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles III and the way in which that has been built over time, we see the certainty that it provides. Indeed, members have talked about our ability as parliamentarians to be focused on the partisan nature of politics, to be able to debate vigorously here in the House, but always to be doing it in the service of the Crown and the country, and that, I think, provides important stability.
I wanted to make sure that my thoughts were on the record and in Hansard.
Certainly, on behalf of the constituents of Kings—Hants, we welcome King Charles III as our new monarch in Canada. I think certainly it has been “God save the King” or “Long live the King”. I do not know exactly whether there is a convention that is different, but we certainly welcome his accession and his role as our head of state in this country.
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- Sep/15/22 2:37:02 p.m.
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A year ago, when my own mother was in her final days, she kept a framed photo of the Queen at her bedside, just as we learned from the Beatles' song Penny Lane that in the pocket of the fireman was a portrait of the Queen. Her presence, even if it was only in our imaginations, was a comfort. Does it make sense to act as if someone we have only ever seen from a distance is a member of our own family? I do not know. Nothing about human emotions seems logical when we try to examine them logically as opposed to emotionally. However, whether we humans are rational or not, her loss feels to so many of us like the personal blow it is to those who really did know her first-hand.
Of course this circle includes our new King, His Majesty King Charles III. Like his mother before him, and a long line of ancestors before that, he faces the difficult task of assuming the duties that will occupy him for the rest of his life at a moment of great personal loss, and must step into his constitutional role precisely when the rest of us would be in a position to take bereavement leave. There is no reason to envy our monarchs for the terrible burdens they must bear. Under our system, a monarch wears the crown for life and death alone can free them of their duties. As difficult as it is for those who must bear the heavy burden of the crown, it is one aspect of the genius of monarchy that the throne is never vacant and that Charles reigned from the moment the late Queen passed from this life into the arms of her own sovereign.
In his first address as our King, His Majesty made the following observation about his late mother. He stated, “In 1947, on her 21st birthday, she pledged in a broadcast from Cape Town to the Commonwealth to devote her life, whether it be short or long, to the service of her peoples.”
His Majesty went on in his speech to make some very apt remarks on the Queen's unparalleled commitment to this extraordinary long-ago promise. Then he added this: “As the Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the Constitutional principles at the heart of our nation.”
Even though, when viewed from the perspective of 1947, the day when she would assume the throne must have seemed to be far away for Princess Elizabeth, it was no small matter to make such a promise on the very day that she achieved the age of majority. It seems to me, and I think to anybody who stops to reflect for a moment, that it is no less extraordinary for a man of 73, to whom the burdens of age are no secret, to make a similar lifetime commitment. The fact that our new King was willing to so firmly embrace this burden, from which he will never be free, and to deny himself for the rest of his life the pleasures of retirement that are enjoyed, for example, by the former monarchs of Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, is a sign that his commitment to duty is as firm as was Queen Elizabeth's, and for that matter as firm as that of his grandfather King George VI, who was such a courageous and steadfast leader during the darkest days of the Second World War.
I think King Charles will be a good king. The King has already demonstrated himself, more than any preceding Prince of Wales, to be a conscientious servant of all his peoples throughout the Commonwealth. He is intelligent. He is hard-working. His wife and consort, Her Majesty Queen Camilla, is an ideal partner. Of course, he has had an entire lifetime to learn from the best possible role model.
The King is a man of no small accomplishment. He is an author. He is a skilled watercolourist. I was once given a book of his landscape paintings as a Christmas present. He is a businessman as well, establishing the successful brand of high-quality organic products known as Duchy Originals. The profits from these sales, by the way, are donated to the Prince's Charities, which the King built into a formidable network of charitable giving during his long tenure as the Prince of Wales. I assume that at his coronation, which will take place sometime in 2023, the formula will be repeated: “God bless King Charles. God save King Charles. May the King live forever.”
Given the longevity of both his parents and of his grandmother, the much-loved Queen Mum, who passed away only after her 100th birthday, there is every reason to hope that his reign too, by modern or historical standards, will be a long one, if not as long as the extraordinary example set by his mother.
However, like all reigns, it starts in sorrow. The Queen is dead and there will be a permanent hollow place in millions of hearts across the planet, as there always is when someone loved is taken from us.
God bless our departed Queen. I hope she knew how much she was loved by all those people she was never able to meet in her lifetime.
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- Sep/15/22 2:42:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do not wish to thank my colleague who just spoke because he had me in tears before I even began my speech.
I would like to begin by extending my deepest condolences to His Majesty King Charles III and the entire royal family, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex and all of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This is a very deep loss for the family, a tragedy that affects them all, and they are top of mind as I speak today.
Much of what was said by my colleague from Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston reflects my own thoughts. He put into words many of my feelings about Her Majesty and her long, successful life, which she so incredibly dedicated to the service of others. Her Majesty was very generous with her time, her talents and, most importantly, her humanity. What I will remember most about Her Majesty is the humanity she always showed.
She was a woman who inspired others through her actions. She did not make many speeches and, as we know, she never gave interviews. She inspired others with her actions, which spoke for themselves.
First, in 1952, she took on a huge responsibility following the tragic loss of her father. Young as she was, she assumed this role with great resolve. Sir Winston Churchill was her first prime minister, and he clearly helped her learn about her role and responsibilities. Over the years, she was able to assert her view of the role and the duties she had to fulfill. In that regard, she was an amazing role model for women who were beginning to come into their own in the post-war years and take their place in society in the hope of coming ever closer to gender equality.
My whole life, I was inspired by everything Her Majesty was able to convey through actions rather than words. She was a woman who knew how to use symbolism in a very subtle but eloquent way. I admire her deeply.
I especially admire her for her visit to Ireland in 2011. It was the first time a British monarch had visited the Republic of Ireland since independence. The strained relationship between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom is common knowledge, but it was important to the Queen that the visit be carried out in a spirit of reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants in order to achieve peace at last and reconcile the entire island of Ireland.
I have heard the speeches that have been made both in Ireland and Northern Ireland since Her Majesty's passing, and I am extremely moved to see the extraordinary impact her visit had on relations between the north, the south and the republic. It was courageous of Her Majesty to take that trip and say a few words in Gaelic. That was the olive branch the Irish had been waiting for for so long.
On a lighter note, I want to mention one event that was particularly important during her reign as Queen of Canada. That was the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which occurred in April 1959 in the town of Saint-Lambert, in the riding I represent.
The St. Lawrence Seaway was key to Canada's development, and Her Majesty's presence at its inauguration was a testament to its importance. My constituents treasure the happy memory of that visit.
As an animal lover myself, I want to speak to Her Majesty's affection for her dogs, her corgis, and for horses. Everyone knew how much she loved animals and what great joy they brought her. Her relationship with her dogs was particularly delightful to see.
People saw she was most relaxed when she had the dogs around her or when she was around horses. I absolutely think we should not forget those lighter sides of Her Majesty because they helped her be the human Queen we so loved. We will remember that for a very long time.
The principle of constitutional monarchy has always resonated with me. Our Queen strengthened that significantly.
For the past 44 years, I have had the good fortune to live in Canada and, for all those years, I have had the good fortune to have Queen Elizabeth II as my sovereign. I was not born a Canadian, but I became one and swore my allegiance to the Queen. I now swear my allegiance to His Majesty King Charles III, who became King of Canada on September 8. Our King is exceptionally well prepared for the role he will take on in the coming years.
I would echo the previous speaker in saying that we wish him a very long reign informed by all the experience he has acquired over the years, particularly in two areas in which Canada is working very hard: the climate emergency and reconciliation with indigenous peoples. I think His Majesty has a very good understanding of the policies Canada wants to implement in those two areas. I wish to reiterate my allegiance to him as he begins his reign.
I want to conclude with some words I shared when we celebrated the Platinum Jubilee this past February. Over the course of her 70 years as Queen, she remained steadfast in her reign over a society that is constantly evolving, which I think is quite notable.
Her Majesty honoured her engagement to a life of service like few others. My admiration for her, her steadfastness, as well as her capacity to meet the times is boundless.
May Her Majesty rest in peace. Long live the King.
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- Sep/15/22 2:52:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am honoured to pay tribute, on behalf of my constituents, to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, who passed away after 70 years of devoted service to the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and certainly to Canada.
Her death has been a devastating heartbreak for millions of people around the world. Very poetically, on the day she died, I noticed on social media many photos of a double rainbow that appeared that very day right above Buckingham Palace. Much of the popular commentary is that perhaps it was a message from God that our Queen had been reunited with her Prince Philip, her husband of over 70 years, whom she called her “strength and stay”. That was just a lovely thing to happen on that otherwise very devastating day for many people.
As many people have seen, there was a magical sense about the Queen. Peter Mansbridge recently said on his podcast that the monarch, the Queen, was “this kind of magic mix of fairytale and history”. I thought that was put very nicely.
For our family, the Queen was part of our cultural heritage and the discussions we would have. There was certainly an admiration and appreciation for Her Majesty. My maternal grandmother mentioned that she used to cut out photos of the Queen in her younger years, to see the outfit she was wearing, what she was saying, how she was acting and what she was doing. It is almost the equivalent to modern-day's Pinterest. There are likely many of us who have pinned an outfit or two of the younger royals. My grandmother was doing the very same thing 70 years ago out of admiration for Her Majesty.
My paternal grandmother, who greatly admired the Queen, would always affectionately tease us to show her love. If we were dressed up for church or for a family gathering, she would say, “Oh, is Queen Elizabeth coming?” It was her way of giving us the highest possible compliment that we looked very lovely.
My mother, like many women her age, greatly admired Princess Diana. For my generation, of course, there are many new younger royals, notably the Princess of Wales, Catherine Windsor, who really sets a standard of decorum and professionalism and respectability whom those before her have done for well over 70 years.
Beyond a distant admiration, it was not something that was necessarily a cornerstone of my professional life or personal life until I swore an oath of allegiance to the Queen, which all members of Parliament have to do in order to become members of Parliament. Really, when I said those words, “I, Raquel Dancho, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II”, the enormity of the responsibility I was assuming hit me like a waterfall. That is where the clock really started to turn and I thought about what this really meant. What is my duty that I am swearing an oath to uphold? Certainly, I look to the Queen as an example. She was certainly the living embodiment of our ancient institutions, our symbols, our parliamentary traditions, our culture, our history, and again, our Canadian and Commonwealth values.
I saw, in swearing my oath, that I was swearing to uphold those traditions and those values. Certainly, it is not always easy. The Queen made it look very easy. She did it for 70 years and, certainly, led by example.
Members of Parliament, of course, have our own duties to uphold those values and traditions.
Queen Elizabeth II was like no other historical figure. Her impact will be felt for many lifetimes to come. It will likely never be repeated, what she was able to accomplish.
She was born in 1926 as part of the world's greatest generation that was defined and shaped by the hardships of the Great Depression and the world wars. She personified the moral standards of the western world and Judeo-Christian values.
When I found out that she had died, I felt a deep sense of sorrow but also a feeling of some frustration, an anxious feeling. It was as though the standard bearer of those values was now lost, and our ability to uphold those values in society was slipping away, the ability for us to prosper and to thrive, which depends on those values, right along with it.
We know that the Queen stood for dignity, for hard work, for doing one's duty, for embracing public service. She never complained, no matter the struggles of the day, whether they were public struggles or ones in her personal life. She always kept a stiff upper lip, as the British say, and maintained her calm composure with grace. She was resilient and strong. She never played the victim. She never exhibited narcissism in any way. She was dedicated, stately, honest, decent and was an absolute lady of decorum, good taste and propriety, rarely, if ever, having a misstep in her seven decades of her reign. It is truly remarkable.
I think that is why millions of us are going to miss her. We need examples like this for ourselves, for our children, for our politicians and for our communities.
In 1947 on her 21st birthday, famously she did a radio broadcast heard around the world where she made a vow. She said, “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service,” and she stuck to that vow for the rest of her life. I think it is pretty difficult for anyone to imagine making a promise at 21 and living up to it with such perfection for 70 years.
She always had poignant words of wisdom for all of us. I really loved her Christmas speeches, and I am really going to miss those.
In 2008 she said, “When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.” Then, during the early days of the pandemic, she shared with all of us, “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again,” and she was absolutely right.
She was always calm and composed, no matter what was going on in the world. She was really a port in the storm, so to speak. She was truly an extraordinary role model for her people, for members of Parliament and certainly for women. At the tender age of 25, she became Queen with the world watching. Many underestimated her abilities. Many thought a young woman would never be capable of the enormous responsibility of carrying over a thousand years of constitutional tradition and evolution that makes up our system of government, but she did and she became one of the greatest world leaders we have ever seen.
Although she was a servant of tradition, she was also a modern woman in her own right. During World War II, as princess, she volunteered as a truck driver and a mechanic, making her the first female member of the royal family to serve in the military. Her coronation was a significant moment for women in history. Women at that time rarely saw women in positions of power. After years of war, women at that time were being encouraged to go back home and be dutiful wives and mothers, but the Queen was expected to know world issues and to be able to converse with and advise the mostly male leadership at the time. She was expected to travel despite having young children. She was a working mother before it was fashionable.
For 70 years, it has been her face we have seen in the halls of power, something women have rarely seen. As was written in a recent Globe and Mail story:
She was also the rare woman who grew old while holding public power. The Queen, after all, could not be fired for having children or going grey. Instead, in official portraits her countenance was updated to mark her advancing years and accruing experience. She aged into her leadership example of being unflappable and resolute....
I found a few very poignant quotes for us to remember as we go into this new parliamentary session. In her 1957 and 1974 Christmas broadcasts respectively, she said, “It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult,” and, “We may hold different points of view but it is in times of stress and difficulty that we most need to remember that we have much more in common than there is dividing us.”
On this very solemn occasion, I want to conclude on a happier note. Something that has comforted us in the recent days is that she certainly has been reunited with Prince Philip, her husband of 70-plus years. He was her strength and stay, and I think that she was ours.
We will miss her. I will certainly miss her.
God save the Queen.
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- Sep/15/22 3:01:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, like my colleagues in the House, it is with an extremely heavy heart that I rise today to commemorate Her Majesty the Queen, Queen Elizabeth II.
When the news broke of Her Majesty's passing, I was in the middle of a five-hour drive to meet Atlantic colleagues, and I spent the remainder of the drive reflecting on the role Queen Elizabeth II played in our country, the Commonwealth and, in fact, the world.
What we have heard today is so true. She was a constant. She was a beacon of peace for many of us. During times of uncertainty and indeed fear, there was a calmness she brought to remind us of the importance of humility, service, dignity and togetherness.
Having ruled longer than any other monarch in Canada's history, Her Majesty linked Canadians with more than two billion people worldwide, symbolizing collaboration and celebrating diversity.
In her visits to Canada, Her Majesty visited my home, Cape Breton Island, on three separate occasions: in 1951, 1959 and 1994. During these royal visits to Cape Breton, the Queen left a lasting impression on all residents. I would like to read into the record some of the memories folks from Cape Breton have of Her Majesty, as published by David Jala in the Cape Breton Post following the Queen's passing.
Former lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, Mayann Francis, who is originally from Cape Breton, remembers Her Majesty as “someone who was quite open and accepting of diversity, of differences in colour, differences in gender.”
Manning MacDonald, former mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, or CBRM, hosted the Queen and Prince Philip during the Queen's last visit to Cape Breton in 1994. Mr. MacDonald recalled her to be a great conversationalist. He stated, “When you were talking with her it was as if she was talking to you alone. She was very easy to speak with. She made me very comfortable.”
It is memories like these that will continue to live on for years to come and will remind us of Her Majesty's reign and presence in our country as we move forward in this next chapter of Canada's history.
Despite her passing, I have no doubt that Canadians will continue to remember Her Majesty for her warmth, compassion, strong sense of tradition and service to Canada.
On behalf of my constituents of Cape Breton-Canso, I offer our most sincere condolences to the royal family during this difficult time.
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- Sep/15/22 3:33:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the world changed on Thursday, September 8, 2022. It has been stated by many that most people alive today have known only one Queen of the United Kingdom, of the Commonwealth, of Canada, and that is certainly true for me. We have a collector's magazine on our coffee table at home dated June 1953, commemorating the coronation of then 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth, who had been Queen for a couple of months already, due to the sudden unexpected passing of her father, King George VI.
Just to date myself, I was born between those two dates, that of her accession to the throne and her coronation.
It has been noted that Elizabeth has been Queen of Canada for almost half of its existence as a modern state. It is historic that we now see a transition from a queen to a king, something that we are all going to have to get used to.
Even though the face of the monarchy has changed from Elizabeth II, who is well adored and loved by the whole world, to Charles III, who has very big shoes to fill now, nothing has really changed. As a member of Parliament, I swore allegiance to Elizabeth II and her heirs. Parliament was not dissolved. The government continues to function. The political party of which I am a member continues to be the loyal opposition, loyal to the Crown.
It bears noting that another historical event has taken place recently. Our colleague, the member for Carleton, has now become the leader of His Majesty's loyal opposition, a phrase that has not been used in 70 years.
I never met the Queen, but I always felt I knew her, going back to my elementary school days at Virginia Park Elementary School in Edmonton, Alberta. Every classroom in the school proudly displayed a more or less up-to-date photograph of the Queen. We saluted the flag. We recited The Lord's Prayer. We sang God Save the Queen almost as often as we sang our national anthem, Oh Canada.
I love that Canada is multicultural. I am personally a beneficiary of that, having been born to parents who had just recently immigrated from the Netherlands. While they maintained many of their Dutch traditions, they truly valued the rich traditions around the British Crown and all that goes with it: the parliamentary government, a stable monarchy, the stability offered by a monarch who rides above the politics of the day. These are concepts that they grew up with in their home country and that were instilled in us as children.
I never met Queen Elizabeth, but it is in my DNA to respect the value that an unchanging monarchy brings to our national identity, stability and unity.
Canadians see their elected representatives disagree about almost everything and some days, judging by what goes on in this chamber, one would think that there was very little unity and almost no national identity. However, we can always turn to the Crown and remind ourselves that, in fact, we are one.
How will Charles III measure up to his mother in performance of royal duties? I am sure he will do a great job, but in a way it doesn't really matter. The functioning of government does not depend on the strengths or failings of the monarch of the day.
It matters a lot in this respect: More and more people in the Commonwealth nations and in Canada are questioning the relevance of a royal family that dates back to the Middle Ages, to feudal Europe, to earlier days of class structures. None of this has a place in our modern, egalitarian, democratic society, so how does this ancient tradition survive? By adaptation, of course. Elizabeth II did that very well. She knew when to speak, when to be silent, when to be present, when to be absent, when to be transparent and how to manage the mystique behind the royal throne.
She demonstrated servant leadership since the very beginning of her public life. In a statement that she made to the Commonwealth on her 21st birthday, she said, “my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service”. For the next 75 years, she demonstrated that she actually meant those words.
Nowhere was this commitment to humble servant leadership more evident than in her annual Christmas address.
In 2014, she said this in her Christmas address:
For me the life of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, whose birth we celebrate today, is an inspiration and anchor in my life.
A couple of years later, in 2016, she included these words in her Christmas address:
Billions of people now follow Christ's teachings and find in him a guiding light for their lives. I am one of them....
As the years went by, Elizabeth became more vocal about her Christian faith. Maybe age gave her pause to reflect on her own mortality. Maybe the instability of the world around her made her reach for the stability that she found in this ancient faith. Maybe it was also Elizabeth II demonstrating servant leadership in her other role on earth, and that is head of the Church of England. She understood that even as England became more and more of a multicultural, multiracial, multi-faith society, it was still highly relevant for the head of the Church of England to use the language of the church.
In closing, I am going to quote the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said the other day:
May Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II rest in peace and rise in glory.
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- Sep/15/22 3:39:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to join other hon. members of this House to pay tribute to our head of state for over seven decades, Queen Elizabeth II. It is indeed a great privilege to share my personal sentiments, which I can assure members are shared by many residents of Willowdale who are deeply saddened by the passing of our monarch.
Over the last several days, we have witnessed an extraordinary outpouring of grief by numerous individuals around the world. We have heard countless expressions of sorrow on the passing of an exceptional personality who found a very special place in very many hearts.
For each of us, our individual or personal reasons may vary. In other words, she endeared herself to legions for a wide variety of qualities and reasons. However, we all recognize that we are now mourning the passing of a tireless monarch who embodied the notion of duty and epitomized the very best of public service. She had a profound effect on many. She was a constant in so many countless lives over the span of many tumultuous decades.
During her seven-decade reign, she was a historic beacon of hope. She weathered countless global crises with steady determination, great dignity and boundless decency. Despite the whirlwind of developments the world experienced during her lifetime, she proved unflappable and always remained committed to remaining a tower of strength and an embodiment of determination during these uncertain times.
The public first caught an early glimpse of her steadfast qualities even before she ascended the throne, when, at age 14, she felt compelled to offer a radio address from Windsor Castle in 1940. It was addressed specifically to children to reassure youth of the promise of impending peace during the dark days of the Second World War. As she remarked during that address, “And when peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.”
It should also come as no surprise that a few years later, while still a teenager, at her own insistence, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service to train as a truck driver and mechanic to assist the war effort.
That very same sense of duty and service were constants after she assumed the throne. Her sense of obligation and fortitude never dulled. It is now estimated that the Queen presided over an average of 500 official appointments in any given year of her lengthy reign. It is also true that she is recognized as the most widely travelled head of state in history.
As Canadians, we were great beneficiaries of her attention and affections. She travelled to Canada on no less than 22 official visits as a monarch. Indeed, Canada was the country most frequently visited by Her Majesty. As she noted on one occasion about our country, “I am sure that nowhere under the sun could one find a land more full of hope”.
It should come as no surprise that she was among us here in Canada in 1957 when Her Majesty became the first Canadian monarch to open Parliament and deliver a speech from the throne. She opened the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959. She attended the 100th anniversary of the meeting of the Fathers of Confederation in Charlottetown in 1964. She was present for our centennial in Ottawa in 1967.
She participated in Expo 67 in Montreal, and was present for the opening of the summer Olympic games in Montreal in 1976. She was present to mark the 100th anniversary of the admission into Confederation of Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island variously between 1970 and 1973.
In 1982, she was present in Ottawa to participate in the patriation ceremony of our new Constitution, which of course included the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It should also be highlighted that she appointed our first French Canadian Governor General in 1959, proclaimed our national flag in 1965 and established the Order of Canada in 1967.
During her lengthy reign, she conferred countless honours upon and sent congratulatory letters and messages to thousands of Canadians, and acted as a royal patron of countless Canadian charities, while also developing and maintaining a particularly strong bond with our military and the RCMP.
Of course, her greatest impact was on individual Canadians. This she did through her unforgettable Christmas addresses.
She noted this in a visit to Halifax in 2010:
Canadians have, by their own endeavours, built a country and society which is widely-admired across the world. I am fortunate to have been a witness to many of the developments and accomplishments of modern Canada.
I would also be remiss if I did not remark on her dedication to maintaining strong bonds with the widest array of countries, in effect allowing our country to broaden and deepen our ties with numerous countries as a member of the Commonwealth. Indeed, our membership in the Commonwealth alongside other multilateral institutions has allowed us to maintain with great pride for many decades that we are the most connected country in the world. During the Queen's reign, the Commonwealth grew from seven to 56 member states, in essence ensuring the Commonwealth was comprised of countries with an estimated 2.5 billion people. These bonds have allowed Canada to forge close ties and bonds of friendship with numerous countries.
The Commonwealth's objectives were first explicitly and expressly outlined in 1971, when the organization committed itself to world peace, the promotion of representative democracy and individual liberty. While we can all acknowledge the vicissitudes in the fortunes of the Commonwealth, there can be no doubt that Her Majesty reimagined the Commonwealth and was devoted to ensuring that the organization was devoted to improving conditions among all its member states.
The greatest example of this occurred in 1986, when 48 of the then 49 members of the Commonwealth agreed to adopt sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The then government of Prime Minister Thatcher was the only holdout. We now know, with the benefit of declassified diplomatic archives, not only that Canada assumed a leading role to cajole the United Kingdom to change its official position, but that the Queen also joined this endeavour, of course only from behind the scenes and with great dignity and decorum.
Allow me to offer my condolences to the royal family and, in particular, His Majesty King Charles.
I join millions around the world in saluting Queen Elizabeth for her tireless decades of duty and service.
May you rest in peace, Your Majesty.
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