Mr. Speaker, I wanted to be here this morning to offer my sincere condolences to the royal family on behalf of residents of Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, but also to honour a life devoted to public service.

I was fortunate enough to have the choice to run for political office, but the Queen did not get a choice. At age 25, she was called upon to assume the mantle of Queen of the Commonwealth. I am so impressed that this woman dedicated herself to serving the people every day of her life for 70 years. She did her duty.

As francophones, we can have debates about the importance of the monarchy. Sometimes, we hear from the media that it is easy, that those people are living the high life at Buckingham Palace, and so forth. However, I believe that that is not important and it is not what we are discussing today. We are talking about the fact that a woman devoted 70 years of her life to public service. That in itself is very honourable, and I commend her courage.

Some days, we feel less interested in staying in this job. However, we have the option of retiring. We have the option of saying that we are hanging up our skates and leaving our jobs. Queen Elizabeth II did not have that choice. She had to continue to fulfill her duties every day, and I think that is honourable, as I said.

Several MPs mentioned that the Queen came to Canada 22 times, which is more times than she visited any other Commonwealth country. Although she did not have the opportunity to conduct an official visit to the riding I represent, I believe that she must have travelled through it while driving on Highway 417, which links Ottawa and Montreal.

That being said, I would like to share a few short anecdotes. I never had the opportunity to meet Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, but I know that my predecessor, the Hon. Don Boudria met her for the first time when I was one year old, in 1984. He met her eight times over the course of his career. He was the minister in attendance to Her Majesty in 2002. As I was saying, there was no official visit to my riding, but we still had a connection to the Queen through my associate, the former member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell.

I also wanted to say that, as a francophone, I respect the fact that she was fluent in French. She took the opportunity to learn the language of Molière. She used it many times here in Canada and that is important to me. It is important for people to be able to speak both official languages, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II met that requirement.

Finally, the last duty that she performed, which has been mentioned, speaks to her dedication to fulfilling her duty as Queen. I still cannot believe it to this day, but the last event that she did officially was meeting with Prime Minister Truss. Many of us will not have to perform duties in the last 48 hours of our lives, but she had to do that, and she did it honourably, as she always had for 70 years of her life.

On behalf of the residents of Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, I offer my deepest condolences to the royal family.

Francis Drouin

$466,140.00