- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman
- Manitoba
- Voting Attendance: 68%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $140,796.07
- Government Page
- Oct/19/22 3:28:14 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to rise today and pay tribute to a former colleague and veteran parliamentarian, the Hon. Bill Blaikie, who recently passed away.
Bill was first elected to this place in 1979 and served continuously for 29 years. When I and others in this chamber were first elected back in 2004, the dean of the House was Bill, a position he held in the 38th and 39th Parliaments.
As we know in this chamber, the esteemed roles of Speaker and Deputy Speaker are normally shared between the governing party and the official opposition. However, because Bill epitomized what being a parliamentarian meant, he was respected right across party lines and throughout this entire House. He was appointed in 2006 as Deputy Speaker, as mentioned, serving with Speaker Milliken. He made some incredible rulings and ran the House very efficiently.
Our House leader, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, was appointed at that time as Assistant Deputy Speaker at the tender age of 26 and worked closely with Bill. I have a fun fact: When Bill was first elected to the House of Commons in 1979, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle was just two days old.
Bill was a devoted parliamentarian, a former House leader and a Deputy Speaker. Bill's reverence for the institutions of Parliament is something we will always remember about him.
When I first met Bill, he was literally bigger than life, towering over almost all of his colleagues, with the exception of six-foot-seven Brian Pallister, the former premier of Manitoba, who, at the time, was the MP for Portage—Lisgar. Back in those days, the direct flights between Winnipeg and Ottawa were done on either Dash 8s or the little CRJ jets. I can say that it was almost impossible for Bill to bend over enough to get into the airplane and walk down the aisle, never mind to fit into the extremely tight seating. I found it very uncomfortable, but Bill never ever complained.
It was on those trips back and forth between Ottawa and home that I was able to get to know Bill. I was surprised to learn that he had been a member of the Progressive Conservative Party. He was a young Conservative in high school and his early days in college. That is why I think he was so reasonable and he could always appreciate our side of the debate.
It was also on those trips, because of his long service and that I knew when he first started in Parliament he had a young family, as I did, I would ask him for advice on how to make sure we balanced parliamentary life with our responsibilities to our families. He provided me with very sound advice.
Bill also served as a reservist with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada and shared my passion for a strong Canadian Armed Forces.
Mr. Speaker, as you and I both know, Bill was very proud of his Scottish heritage. He was one of the best pipers Canada had to offer and was instrumental in founding our annual Robbie Burns nights here on the Hill, starting back in 1988 with Speaker Fraser. I can honestly say that I have never seen a more passionate, better or comical Address to a Haggis. Bill loved performing it and we all loved watching him do it.
Following his federal career here in Ottawa, Bill was asked to run provincially and served from 2009 to 2011 as Manitoba's minister of conservation and government House leader. I got to work with him again as we dealt with overland flooding along Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipeg and Lake St. Martin in my riding.
It was not just politics and Parliament that Bill respected. He was a man of faith. He revered God. The Hon. Bill Blaikie was also the Reverend Bill Blaikie, an ordained minister of the United Church. He found callings in both faith and politics. After he retired from politics, Bill accepted a position as adjunct professor of theology and politics at the University of Winnipeg.
When it came to politics, as Bill said in an interview after publishing his 2011 biography, his “driving force has been the social gospel in Canadian left-wing politics”. That dynamic of persons of faith in politics, perhaps, is something that has been more common in western Canada and certainly was, once upon a time, part of the very foundation of the NDP.
Bill was keen to stress, “The church and state is different than faith and politics...you notice that where the separation of church and state is very strong and constitutional that doesn’t mean there’s a separation between faith and politics because that’s something individuals bring. It’s not an institutional connection.”
Bill was a worthy successor to the social gospel heritage of the NDP and its predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, which had propelled that party to many of its historical successes on the Prairies. In fact, the House leader of the official opposition told me, “If Bill had won the NDP leadership back in 2003, I probably would never have won my Saskatchewan seat in 2004.” Truth be told, if Bill was the NDP leader, my Manitoba seat would have been at risk and I may not have made it here in 2004 either. Instead, as fate would have it, Jack Layton won, which allowed our House leader and I to be Bill's colleagues in the House and, in the case of our House leader, share your chair, Mr. Speaker.
Like many Conservatives and New Democrats, we hardly agreed on everything, but we certainly respected the fact that we each believed in things and acknowledged our respective principles.
Bill Blaikie had a life well lived, a life dedicated to service and helping others, and for that we unite today in paying tribute and giving thanks.
In closing, on behalf of my Conservative colleagues, I want to express our sincere condolences to Bill's wife Brenda, his daughters Rebecca, Jessica and Tessa, and his son, our colleague, who is carrying on Bill's legacy, the hon. member for Elmwood—Transcona.
Bill will be sadly missed, but fondly remembered by all. May he rest in peace.
1063 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Sep/15/22 2:25:58 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I am honoured today to be able to rise and join with all my parliamentary colleagues in paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth. On behalf of the constituents of Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, I want to offer all of our heartfelt condolences to the royal family and to all of the Queen's loyal subjects.
A lot of us have been talking about how the monarchy touches our ridings. I can tell members, being the member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, that we are home to Lower Fort Garry, which was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada, and the residence of the governor for the Hudson's Bay Company is located a bit south of the modern-day City of Selkirk.
The fort is in great condition, and every year we gather at the fort to commemorate the signing of Treaty No. 1 with the Anishinabe and the Ojibwa people, the first peoples of the land, who signed in 1871 with Canada, as Manitoba was a new province in 1870 and had just joined Confederation. The first numbered treaty in western Canada was signed.
From reading some history on Chief Peguis, Peguis First Nation, Sagkeeng First Nation and Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, which are in or alongside my riding, I know that Chief Peguis, who was one of the original signatories, always took it to heart that when he signed the treaty, he was signing with the Crown, Queen Victoria. All his sons took the name “prince” because he saw himself as an equal signing a treaty with the monarchy. That is something that still resonates to this day with our first nations.
Queen Elizabeth, when she ascended to the throne on June 2, 1953, at the young age of 25, upon the death of her father, King George VI, promised to serve the people of the country of Canada, of the kingdom, for her whole life, whether it be long or short. I can tell members that she did that with grace and dignity, with humility, with a heart of service, and through her entire career of 70 years she set an example, a standard, for all of us in public service.
When she passed away on September 8, I know all of us were shocked and saddened by her passing. We will never see anything like Queen Elizabeth again. For most of us, she is the only head of state that we have known. I am 57 years old, and all I have ever known is God save the Queen. Now we have to learn the new words: God save the King. We are going to have to change all the nomenclature that we have in our institutions. It is now the Court of King's Bench instead of the Court of Queen's Bench, and people are King's Counsel now and not Queen's Counsel. All the acronyms are going to change.
We have talked about her service, and as the former shadow minister of national defence and former parliamentary secretary for national defence, I have always been incredibly impressed with her bravery and service during World War II in the army as a mechanic and as a truck driver. It was something that she was still doing until just prior to her death. She loved to be out on the land. She loved to be on the farm and she loved to be with her horses and dogs, and she loved driving her Jeep.
The former prime minister, the Right Honourable Boris Johnson, said in his tribute in the Westminster Parliament a few days ago that when he went to meet the Queen in Balmoral Castle while going through the transition of a new government forming in Britain, she actually took him for a drive. She jumped in the Jeep and she drove the truck. She was driving it. It was a standard, a shift stick, and she was hitting every gear and moving the clutch. Who would have thought that just a couple of days after that she would pass away so quickly?
We are honoured that we got to call her our head of state. We are always in awe of everything that she accomplished in her lifetime. She commanded respect around the world because she always put service and dedication to others above self.
King Charles III has renewed his mother's promise to serve as long as he lives. I know that all of us as Canadians from coast to coast to coast join in this grief along with the royal family.
We often talk about the 22 times that the Queen came to Canada, and a number of times those visits by the Queen, as well as Prince Philip, had an impact on my family. When my two older brothers were teenagers in the good old 4-H program, a youth program focused around those of us in the agriculture sector, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were at the first international livestock judging competition. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip went to the Agribition in Regina in 1977, and the 4-H people got to have supper with Prince Philip. It was a big thing at our supper tables as to how to properly eat. Which order do the forks go in? What do we do with our buns? There were all these discussions about protocol when it came to dining with a member of the royal family.
On six of the 22 times that Queen Elizabeth came to Canada, she came to Manitoba. During her Golden Jubilee in 2002, on the steps of the Manitoba legislature, a young girl presented flowers to her. It was my niece Holly. It is something our family is incredibly proud of. She got to meet Her Majesty and present the flowers. October 8, 2002, will always be marked in her memory and our family's memory.
The Queen returned to Manitoba in July 2010 to unveil the cornerstone of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the first Canadian museum to be established outside of the capital region. She brought with her the cornerstone that came from the same region of England where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. She was dedicated to human rights. If we look at her career and the work that she did all over the world, we see that often it was focused on protecting human rights. She made sure to point out, when she was unveiling that rock, that the Magna Carta is where our modern parliamentary democracy was established, where civil liberties came into play, and where we, as commoners, finally had a franchise in our own governance. That was something she wanted to make sure was focused and centred in our own Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
As Canada and the world mourns our beloved sovereign, we also look to the future. I had the pleasure to meet her son, King Charles III, who now sits as King of Canada, a number of years ago, in March of 2006, during Commonwealth Day celebrations in London. I was there with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association's Westminster Seminar. We attended and got to meet King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla. I can tell everyone it was something I will never forget. He was incredibly engaging and very easy to speak to.
May King Charles be blessed with wisdom and exercise justice and mercy, and may he live long. May Queen Elizabeth II rest in peace. God save the Queen and God bless Canada.
1264 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
