Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House to recognize the hard work of the member for Outremont, who will soon be leaving the House.

I met the member for Outremont for the first time in September 2007 during the Outremont byelection. Of course, I knew him by reputation since he had been the representative for Chomedey in the Quebec National Assembly and then the Quebec environment minister.

At that time, I was told that his personality reflected his Irish ancestry, and that is true. I was told that he had an innate sense of politics that he had inherited from his great-great grandfather, Honoré Mercier, the ninth premier of Quebec, and that is true too. I was also told that, like his mentor Claude Ryan, he could assimilate and synthesize the news and quickly determine what the political implications would be, and that is also true.

What I did find, canvassing with the member for Outremont in the streets of Outremont in 2007, was a man who had, and still has, the rare ability to connect with people in the street or at home and to make them feel totally that he understands them and that he will fight for them. Fight he did, first in winning a riding that pundits never tired of calling an unassailable Liberal fortress, then in confirming that win in the 2008 general election, proving that the by-election was not a fluke.

He spent the next three years advising Jack Layton in the context of a fragile minority government in which the NDP held the balance of power. During that time, he sowed the seeds that blossomed into the great orange wave of 2011.

Then came the tragic death of Jack Layton, and that changed everything.

The member for Outremont defied the odds to succeed him at the helm of the official opposition, providing the guidance, the stability, and the discipline we needed as the then government in waiting.

Many pundits dismissed us as a bunch of newcomers who were held together by Jack and said we would crumble after his passing, but under the leadership of the member for Outremont, we were often referred to as one of the most effective official oppositions. His prosecution day after day after day of the Stephen Harper government has been a hallmark in parliamentary history.

The 2015 general election results were a disappointment, and I know nobody was more disappointed than him. I also know he gave his all to the campaign and that, true to his Irish roots, his devotion to the NDP drove him to keep up the fight.

It was the end of an era that began in a restaurant in Hudson, where Jack and Olivia met with him and his wife, Catherine, and where, against all odds, Jack convinced him to join a party that did not have a single seat in Quebec at the time.

I would like to thank his wife, Catherine, his children, Matthew and Gregory, his daughters-in-law, Jasmyne and Catherine, and his grandchildren, Juliette, Raphaël, and Leonard, for being so patient and for sharing him with us.

I would also like to thank Chantale, Graham, Mathilde, and Miriam for their dedication and for playing such an important role in this saga.

All I can say to the member for Outremont is thank you and see you soon.

Guy Caron