SoVote

Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

Sep/15/22 10:20:21 a.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, the House of Commons is reflecting on the exceptional life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen of Canada, our Queen. For about seventy years she was our head of state, and beyond that she also served the Canadian people. She was a role model for all those shouldering public service responsibilities. Her sense of duty reminded us that, for all the pomp and circumstance, the real work of governing is not glamourous. It often requires putting aside egos, keeping our heads down and keeping on with the job. Her humility reminded us that government is not about us; it is about those we serve. We are, indeed, servants and not masters. The Queen had a special place in our hearts and we had a special place in hers. She spent more official time here in Canada than in any other country, save the United Kingdom. She first visited Canada as Princess Elizabeth in 1951. It was on that trip that she said, “From the moment when I first set foot on Canadian soil, the feeling of strangeness went, for I knew myself to be not only amongst friends, but amongst fellow countrymen.” She would visit Canada over 20 times as the Queen. She was present at so many of our most important occasions: the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, the centennial Expo in 1967, the 1976 summer Olympics and the patriation of our Constitution in 1982. As we reflect on Her late Majesty's life and service, we reflect also on the enduring nature of the institution over which she was the Crown. On her visit to Canada in 1951, then Princess Elizabeth planted an oak sapling in Vancouver. Seventy-one years later, that sapling has grown into a mighty and stately oak whose canopy provides relief from the sun or, it being in Vancouver, perhaps more likely shelter from the rain. The oak tree has long been a royal symbol. It is a symbol of the British constitution, whose forms we inherited and whose conventions we follow in this House. In Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, he wrote the constitution was a spreading oak tree, under whose protective shade the British could peacefully and securely enjoy life, as is only possible for those who live under ordered liberty. In Burke's day, the Crown was already a largely symbolic institution. The Civil War had made Parliament supreme more than a century earlier. The conventions of cabinet were established and are similar to what they are now today, but there were voices who thought it was time to set aside the monarchy. Burke understood, however, that the key to stability, civil peace and freedom was not to scrap the Crown, but to keep it free from day-to-day politics. When each of us entered this place, this Parliament of ours, we entered a place rooted in a historic compromise between Crown and commoner, a compromise that was forged over centuries through bloody conflict, but also through peaceful evolution. The authority of the Crown may in a sense be fictional, but it is also functional. The separation of symbolic authority from political power allows partisan politics to be contested fearlessly without threatening the enduring constitutional order. Parties and politicians come and go; the Crown endures. The division of duties or the “org chart”, as we might say in workplace lingo, is simple: The Crown preserves parliamentary democracy and the commoners practise it, as we do here in this place. Where does all this come from? Well, it is at least as old as the Magna Carta itself. In 1215, the barons gathered in the fields of Runnymede outside of London to confront the King. They were angry at being overtaxed to fund royal adventurism overseas and frustrated by arbitrary excesses of royal power at home. They were determined to rein in the Crown's authority. The barons forced King John to sign the great charter, the Magna Carta, which spelled out the rights and freedoms that the Crown must honour. This was and is liberty under the law. Over the next 800 years, those liberties would be gradually extended, improved upon and given not only to citizens of the United Kingdom, but to all of those who inherited British-style parliamentary democracy. Though the system is 800 years old, it is only one generation deep. If one generation throws it away, all may lose it forever. That is why the work of Her Majesty in preserving that liberty and that system is such a treasured gift to us all and to many more yet to come. As Burke put it, it is a “partnership...between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born”. We are the living generation and we have a duty to pass on to our children what Diefenbaker called the “heritage of freedom” we inherited from our ancestors. This is an inheritance of all Canadians, not just those of British lineage. I myself am not of British descent, but I recognize that this tradition and these liberties are my own, just as our first French Canadian prime minister, the great Wilfrid Laurier, did more than a century ago. When visiting France in 1897, prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier stated, on behalf of all French Canadians, that he was loyal to England and to France. He said, “We are faithful to the great nation which gave us life, we are faithful to the great nation which gave us liberty.” He explained this to a French audience. It is our glory in Canada. When the Queen spoke at the patriation of our Constitution in 1982, at a ceremony not far from where I stand and all members sit today, she said: The genius of Canadian federalism...lies in your consistent ability to overcome differences through reason and compromise. That ability is reflected in the willingness of the ordinary people of French-speaking Canada and English-speaking Canada, and of the various regions, to respect each other’s rights, and to create together the conditions under which all may prosper in freedom. In his inaugural address, King Charles III stated that he was raised with the greatest respect for the precious traditions, freedoms and responsibilities of our unique history and our system of parliamentary government. I congratulate the new king on his responsibilities, and I look forward to serving, here in Canada, all Canadian peoples, as he, too, devotes his life to service. It is with a heavy heart but heartfelt thanks, and with confidence in the future, that I say Godspeed Queen Elizabeth II, God save the King and God bless Canada.

1134 words

SoVote

House Hansard - 96