Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by congratulating you. You have earned members' support to manage the House for the next few months or years. We will see.

I too would like to indulge myself and take this opportunity to thank the voters of Regina—Qu'Appelle, and indeed my spouse. I would like to thank my wife Jill for the sacrifice that she and my family make, as all our spouses and significant others do.

Mr. Speaker, you have just taken charge of an office that is almost as old as Parliament itself. It emerged in the Middle Ages when the commons needed a spokesman to air its grievances to the king, a task that probably would not stand up to the safe workplace guidelines that exist today. As we know, until the 17th century, the Speaker's loyalty was to the Crown rather than to MPs, and they were often blamed if they delivered bad news to the monarch. Seven Speakers were beheaded between 1394 and 1535, and many more were imprisoned. Managing monarchs was a delicate undertaking.

One Speaker, John Wenlock, during the Wars of the Roses, when no one could be sure who would end up as king, tried to hedge his bets by fighting for both the York family and the Lancastrians. It did not work out too well for him, though: He died at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Of course, he was not the last politician to try to be on both sides of a contentious issue. I dare say we may find some Liberal MPs voting for things that they were very recently voting against.

Gradually, the Speaker's role became one of representing Parliament rather than the monarch, and it was not until the Victorian era that impartiality of the Speaker became the norm. It might no longer be a requirement to stand up to kings and queens, but you may find yourself having to stand up to other offices of authority. If such a moment presents itself, we trust that you will stand with the Speakers who came before you who defended this institution on behalf of the people.

As I look back over the last few parliaments, we did have some trying times. We witnessed injuries from flying elbows, F-bombs dropped and a few appearances of one member in a state of undress. I did hear that CPAC was considering putting “May contain violence, coarse language and nudity” as a warning on the daily broadcast, but so far it has not had to do that.

Andrew Scheer

$631,397.00