Madam Speaker, it is an honour for me to rise today, as parliamentarians on all sides of the House remember, honour and pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, our sovereign, our head of state, commander-in-chief of the Canadian Armed Forces, a global leader, a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother.

I want to start, as a member of Her late Majesty's Privy Council and a member of Parliament, by expressing my deepest sympathies to the royal family. While the Queen was an icon to people around the world, possibly the most recognizable figure, to them she was a mother. She was leader of the family, and she was someone they could go to in good times and bad.

I also want to pledge my allegiance, as Canada does within its constitutional monarchy, to our new King, Charles III. Long live the King.

There have been many great reflections on Her Majesty in the last week. We are still in a bit of shock, despite the fact that her 70 years on the throne led to us knowing that this day would come. It is still a very difficult day, so I looked to two of the greatest Britons for inspiration, one being the Queen, the longest-serving monarch and a great leader, the other being their longest-serving member of Parliament. At 64 years in Parliament, Sir Winston Churchill did not reach the Platinum Jubilee levels of the Queen, but he was her first prime minister, and he had remarkable thoughts about the Queen that I will share with the House today.

In fact, in 1928, Winston Churchill met Princess Elizabeth at two years of age, at Balmoral Castle. In a letter to his wife, Clementine, he said, “There is no one here at all except the Family, the Household & Princess Elizabeth—aged 2. The last is a character. She has an air of authority & reflectiveness astonishing in an infant….” At that time, given a later abdication, Winston Churchill never would have thought that that young princess would be his queen and he, her first prime minister.

What is more remarkable is the next speech I am going to give. Canada, really the leader within the Commonwealth, particularly in the modern age, was pushing within the Commonwealth to end apartheid and pushing for aid, security and trade around the world through our common bonds in the Commonwealth.

In 1953, just days before the Queen's coronation, at a gathering of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association at which both the Queen and Canada were present, Winston Churchill said, “Here today we salute fifty or sixty Parliaments and one Crown. It is natural for Parliaments to talk and for the Crown to shine.” He went on to say, “Well do we realize the burdens imposed by sacred duty upon the Sovereign and her family. All round we see the proofs of the unifying [force] which makes the Crown the central link in...our modern changing life, and the one which above all others claims our allegiance to the death.”

The Queen did shine with a remarkable brilliance for over 70 years on the throne, not just in the United Kingdom, but in Canada and around the world. She was the central link for our parliamentary democracy for almost half of our time as an independent country.

I would now like to say a few words in French, one of the two founding languages of our country. Interestingly enough, the greatness of the Quebec nation was enshrined in our Constitution and guaranteed by the Crown. Throughout our country's history, the Quebec nation has faced challenges and discrimination. Despite that, Quebeckers have grown strong and proud. Today, we have a nation that is proud of its language, culture and identity thanks to the people of Quebec, the constitutional monarchy, and the Constitution of a country founded by two peoples in partnership with the first nations.

I am proud to stand in the House of Commons and speak in French, thanks to my service in a bilingual federal institution. Canada is not perfect. There are challenges facing francophone minority communities in some parts of the country.

We live in the best country in the world, thanks to our history and our two peoples. North America is home to an island of 7 million francophones in a sea of 600 million Anglophones, and we neighbour the most influential nation in the world, the United States. However, the Quebec nation and French-speaking communities are thriving from coast to coast to coast. That is incredible. We must remember that and celebrate it.

The Queen shone when she was here for 22 official visits, meeting millions of people. She said this in the nearby chamber for her Silver Jubilee in 1977: “My happiest memories of our travels throughout Canada have been these individual contacts, which have revealed the enormous strength and astonishing diversity of this nation.”

She was the mother of all people, a title given to her in the 1950s by the Coast Salish people in British Columbia, commander-in-chief of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the honorary captain, honorary air commodore or honorary colonel of 16 regiments; 34 of our commissioned ships are Her Majesty's Canadian ships, and I wear the tie today of one institution, Royal Military College, that was given her seal.

One of those regiments is something that touched this Parliament not long ago, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, Princess Louise's. The Queen was their honorary colonel. Going back to 1951, when she was a princess, she visited then. She visited again in Hamilton in 2002 to bestow new colours on the regiment.

However, it is not in celebration that the Queen's leadership was evident. It was in 2014, when one of their soldiers was killed not far from here, at our National War Memorial. The Queen's letter to the regiment was the first to arrive. Her wishes were expressed to the family of Nathan Cirillo and to the regiment. Months later, she invited members of the regiment to her private apartment at Buckingham Palace, not only to express sympathies but also to inquire as to how the son and family of Nathan Cirillo were doing.

These were not honorary titles that the Queen just took without caring about them. She was deeply committed to every institution that she was the central link to, as Winston Churchill once said. She was the commander-in-chief of the Canadian Armed Forces. My first oath to the Queen was given in 1991, at the age of 18, when I swore an oath of allegiance. I have had that honour many times, as a member of Parliament and in 2015, when I joined what was then Her Majesty's Privy Council, that central link in these institutions upon which our rich parliamentary democracy is built. She is the central link to the great mother, Queen Victoria, and our rights and responsibilities and the constitutional rights for indigenous peoples in this country. She is a patron and has been a supporter of innumerable causes in her 22 visits to this country.

The Queen's first speech from the throne in person in Canada was years after the creation of NATO, and she has been there as our sovereign as our country grew in the modern age, from NATO to the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, Expo 67, the Montreal Olympics and, of course, the 1982 patriation of Canada's Constitution, which in many ways was the full-circle moment for the Queen to help deliver the modern Canada on the world stage and showcase our commitment to the fundamental rights of all of our citizens in the charter. The Queen said on that day, April 17, 1982, just outside where we are today, “I am pleased and proud to be with you today, not only to celebrate the patriation of the Constitution, but to rejoice in Canada, its past, its present and its future.”

Today, let us rejoice in the life of service and the leadership of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Let us remember where she shone on her visits here and around the world, and let us remember that that central link of our constitutional monarchy has provided stability and helped build great institutions upon which we rely as Canadians. In this Parliament, we can celebrate, debate and discuss the future of this country, knowing it is rooted in the fertile soil of our Constitution and our roots.

Today, we say, “The Queen is dead. We celebrate and honour her life. Long live the King.”

Erin O'Toole

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