Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. The question of why I am seeking this office was a question I had to ask myself many times. In fact, it was a question I asked myself four years ago when I ran to be an MLA. For most of my life, I have heard the saying, "You can make changes from the outside in. You can make changes from the inside out." I tried that. I spent over 20 years working with low-income people saying, "Help us, help us, help us," and no one helped us. For over 20 years, we never got an increase: $30,000 a year of core funding to support homeless women. I spoke on that before. I talked to people who worked in the bureaucracy, people who worked for the government, and I heard their frustrations, and I thought, "Well, even from the inside out, you are struggling to make change" because often, they said, "This is your job description. If you don't like it, you can leave."
Then one day, an epiphany came across, and I thought, "Why do we always talk the inside out and the outside in? Why don't we talk about being the top?" At that time, I decided to put my name forward, and it wasn't power and control. In all honesty, Mr. Speaker-elect, this is not an easy job. I came from the NGO world, where people love me, and the only people who fought against me were the government. Then I came into a place where half the people love me and half the people, most of them don't even know me, hate me with such passion.
I believe the reason that I am here is because we can do better. I came in here hearing about consensus government and hearing it was based on an Aboriginal policy, a place of doing business where each person has a say and each person is valued for their input, and I haven't seen that. See, it is different, being a Premier is totally different, than being a Minister or a Regular MLA. The job as an MLA is to fight for your people, to keep us accountable. The job as a Minister is to make sure your departments work hard and get the changes done. The job of a Premier, Mr. Speaker-elect, is to bring together the Members of the Assembly. We won't always agree, but, Mr. Speaker-elect, my experience, my background, and my heart, my heart is why I am here, and I will work hard, as hard as I can, all of us together, to make sure that every Member's voice is heard and that they have a say, and that the people, more importantly, have a say. Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect.