Mr. Speaker, I would like to say hello to you and all my colleagues in the House. It is a great honour for me to be here today. I am very proud to have the opportunity to represent my community of Victoria.

First and foremost, I thank my wife, Carolyn, and our daughter, Eleanor, without whom I would not be the person I am today. I love them both more than I can say, and I am so grateful for their support and sacrifice as we undertake this new political journey together.

My gratitude and love extend to all my many Greaves, Thomson, Mendez and Cornford relations spread across Canada and around the world. I am indebted to all of them, and I know that they join me in thinking of our loved ones who are no longer with us but would be so very excited today: my grandparents, Wilf and Peggy; my Abuela Maria; and my mother, Sherry, whose son I am so proud to be.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to the incredible team of Liberals in Victoria. Not only did the members of the Victoria EDA give so much time, energy and passion to our recent campaign, but, for many years, they also did the hard, unglamorous and often unrecognized work of maintaining a functioning organization. Victoria Liberals kept the lights on, the engine warm and the bank account full over the two decades since our party last won this seat.

That hard work was recognized last year with the award for the best Liberal riding association in British Columbia, and it set up our campaign for unprecedented success. Led by my extraordinary campaign manager, adviser and friend, Naomi Devine, I am proud to say that our efforts resulted in the second most votes of any candidate in B.C. and the most votes for any Liberal candidate west of Ontario.

I also thank the voters of Victoria, without whose support I would not be here today. They have sent me to Ottawa to support a strong Liberal government and to represent our west coast and island values, interests and priorities. Indeed, being all the way to one side of this great country, we know a few things about being far from Ottawa. I commit to ensuring that the voices of my constituents on southern Vancouver Island are heard and respected in Parliament.

Victorians and Vancouver Islanders are proud Canadians who want to build up an even stronger Canada. Unlike some, we do not threaten to dismember our country to score cheap political points. In Victoria, we believe in a strong, free and united Canada.

Governing this remarkable country is hard and requires common ground, common sense and common adherence to some basic truths. Truths are not always easy to accept, but that is the point. They are true regardless of how we may feel about them, and our success or failure hinges on whether we can come to terms with them. As some of my hon. colleagues opposite have been fond of saying in the past, facts do not care about our feelings.

Fact: Canada is one of the oldest and most successful constitutional democracies in the world. Our tradition of parliamentary government reaches back well before Confederation, evolving through generations of change, struggle and hard-won progress. I am deeply honoured to carry that legacy forward.

Before there was a Parliament, before there was a Canada, this land was home to vibrant and self-governing indigenous nations. Their cultures, languages and legal systems shaped these territories for millennia before the expansion of colonialism brought profound harms that continue to shape the lives of indigenous peoples to this day. Our shared history includes settlement, immigration, trade, conflict and transformation. It has made Canada a diverse and peaceful country, one admired around the world. However, that story is incomplete if we fail to acknowledge that the prosperity many of us enjoy was built unevenly and, too often, at the expense of others.

I am grateful for the stewardship of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples on whose traditional territories Victoria is built; this is where my family is so fortunate to reside. Ours is a country where pride in our past must walk hand in hand with the courage to face its shadows so that we may build a future worthy of all who call this land home today.

That includes the founding agreement between the French and English peoples, which is the basis of the Confederation and sets us apart in the world. Bilingualism and multiculturalism are at the heart of Canada. I am the proud son of a Canadian mother and a Dominican father, the grandson of an English-Canadian grandfather and a French-Canadian grandmother, and the product of a history of peoples in Canada, Europe and the Caribbean.

As an academic and professor who has lived and worked across Canada and around the world, I have seen how fortunate we are and understand the work it takes to build a just society and maintain a robust democracy. We are bound to our past, not defined by its mistakes but guided by its lessons: resilience, progress and a deep well of national purpose.

I want to be clear: Canada will never be another country's 51st state. We are not a footnote in anyone else's story. We are a sovereign nation with a voice, a vision and a vital role to play in the world, and we are stronger than those within our borders who would seek to divide us for their own political gain. They have tried before and failed. They may try again, but they will fail again, because Canadians are rightly proud of what we have built and clear-eyed about what we must still do together.

One thing we must do together is combat climate change. Climate change is not a debate; it is a fact: undeniable, unrelenting and already shaping the lives of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. In my riding of Victoria, we do not have the luxury of denial. As a coastal island community, we are surrounded by the evidence of rising sea levels, intensifying storms, smoke-choked skies—

Will Greaves