Mr. Speaker, allow me to congratulate you.

Mr. Speaker, are you sure you know what you have gotten yourself into? I know you have strong enough arms for the job because I had the difficult task of dragging you all the way to that chair. We thought for a moment that you had changed your mind when you took a turn to congratulate one of our colleagues on this side, but it is an incredible achievement to serve in the role that Parliament has bestowed upon you.

To serve here, in the House of Commons, is an honour for every member. Each of us should be proud to be responsible for working on behalf of some 100,000 people.

At times, however, we forget the order in which power is exercised. We think that the Prime Minister is at the top, with the House of Commons below, and the people down at the very bottom, but the opposite is true. In a democracy, the people have the power. We serve the people, and the government serves parliamentarians.

In fact, that is why Parliament was invented. The reason these floors and seats are green is that the first commoners met in fields. They were the peasants and farmers who were tired of having their crops taxed away by an impossibly cruel Crown. They gathered to force King John to sign the Magna Carta, the great charter, which of course restrained the power of the Crown.

Today, we have a similar circumstance, with a government that is excessively powerful and costly. It has overburdened the population and created unprecedented strain, particularly on middle-class and working-class people, who are now forced in many cases to live in tents and who are losing their homes and skipping meals. We have seven million people who cannot afford food because of the inflationary taxes imposed on that food by an overly greedy government.

Now, more than ever, the role of Parliament in restraining the power of the Prime Minister is primordial. We will continue to carry out that role proudly on the floor of this House of Commons because we will always remember that we are servants and not masters of the Canadian people. We will do it with common sense. Why is this important?

Pierre Poilievre

$204,067.00