Juno News - September 15, 2022Pierre Poilievre delivers tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in Parliament
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Summary
Learn English with the Queen Elizabeth II, who served as Prime Minister of Canada from 1953-1983. Her Majesty was a great humanitarian, philanthropist, and humanist. She was a loving mother, a beloved wife, a devoted daughter, and a devoted sister. Her vision for Canada was simple: she wanted to see all Canadians treated fairly, fairly everywhere, and fairly everywhere she went.
Transcript
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For all the pomp and circumstance, the real work of governing is not glamorous.
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It often requires putting aside egos, keeping our heads down, and keeping on with the job.
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Her humility reminded us that government is not about us, it is about those we serve.
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The Queen had a special place in our hearts, and we had a special place in hers.
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She spent a more official time here in Canada than in any other country save the United Kingdom.
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She first visited Canada as Princess Elizabeth in 1951.
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It was on that trip that she said, and I quote,
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From the moment when I first set foot on Canadian soil, the feeling of strangeness went,
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for I knew myself to be among not only friends, but amongst fellow countrymen.
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She would visit Canada over 20 times as Queen, and she was present at so many of our most important occasions.
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The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 59, the Centennial Expo in 67,
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the 76th Summer Olympics, and the Patriation of our Constitution in 1982.
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As we reflect on Her Majesty's, Her Late Majesty's, life and her service,
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we reflect also on the enduring nature of the institution over which she was the Crown.
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On her visit to Canada in 1951, then Princess Elizabeth planted an oak sapling in Vancouver.
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Seventy-one years later, that sapling has grown into a mighty and stately oak
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whose canopy provides relief from the sun, or, it being Vancouver, perhaps more likely shelter from the rain.
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whose forms we inherited and whose conventions we follow in this House.
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In Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, he wrote,
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the Constitution was a spreading oak tree, under whose protective shade the British could peacefully
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and securely enjoy life, as is only possible for those who live under ordered liberty.
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In Burke's day, the Crown was already a largely symbolic institution.
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The Civil War had made Parliament supreme more than a century earlier.
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The conventions of Cabinet were established and similar to what they are now today.
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But there were voices who thought that it was time to set aside the monarchy.
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Burke understood, however, that the key to stability, civil peace, and freedom
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was not to scrap the Crown, but to keep it free from day-to-day politics.
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When each of us entered this place, this Parliament of ours,
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we entered a place rooted in a historic compromise between Crown and Commoner,
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a compromise that was forged over centuries through bloody conflict,
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The authority of the Crown may, in a sense, be fictional, but it is also functional.
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You see, the separation of symbolic authority from political power
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allows partisan politics to be contested fearlessly
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without threatening the enduring constitutional order.
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Parties and politicians come and go, the Crown endures.
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The Division of Duties, or the org chart, as we might say in workplace lingo, is simple.
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The Crown preserves parliamentary democracy, and the commoners practice it,
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Well, it's at least as old as the Magna Carta itself.
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In 1215, the barons gathered in the fields of Runnymede, outside London, to confront the King.
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They were angry at being overtaxed to fund royal adventurism overseas,
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and frustrated by arbitrary excesses of royal power at home.
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And they were determined to reign in the Crown's authority.
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The barons forced King John to sign the Great Charter, the Magna Carta,
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which spelled out the rights and freedoms that the Crown must honour.
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Over the next 800 years, those liberties would be gradually extended,
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improved upon, and given to citizens not only of the United Kingdom,
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but all of those who inherited British-style parliamentary democracy.
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Though this system is 800 years old, it is only one generation deep.
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If one generation throws it away, all may lose it forever.
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That is why the work of Her Majesty in preserving that liberty and that system
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is such a treasured gift to us all and to many more yet to come.
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As Burke put it, it is a partnership between those who are living,
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those who are dead, and those who are yet to be born.
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We are the living generation, and we have a duty to pass on to our children
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and what Diefenbaker called the heritage of freedom we inherited from our ancestors.
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And when the Queen spoke at the patriation of our Constitution in 1982,
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at a ceremony not far from where we stand, where I stand, and where all of you sit today,
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The genius of Canadian federalism lies in our consistent ability to overcome differences
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That ability is reflected in the willingness of ordinary people of French-speaking
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and English-speaking Canada and of all regions to respect each other's rights
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and to create the conditions together under which all may prosper in freedom.
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It is with a heavy heart, but heartfelt thanks, and with confidence in the future that I say,
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Godspeed, Queen Elizabeth II, God save the King, and God bless Canada.