Mr. Speaker, a number of times I have been called the dean Member. Sometimes, they call me the oldest Member. This time, I would like to speak about a person in this House. I have been here for 17 years. I do not have any more experience than you have. Since I have been called the dean I would like to say a few words about this Assembly. It is not going to be a precedent speech.
When this Assembly started in 1967, the government moved to the north. At that time there was only one government. That was the Commissioner. Secondly, there was a deputy commissioner. In 1975, there was the first fully elected 15 Member Assembly. I was there. At that time, I thought we had a hard time making policies and guidelines more suitable for the north. After that, we started talking about changing the government. There was no complaining about the Commissioner of duty. Even if we tried to complain, because there were no Ministers, he would say, "none of your business; it cannot be done." When he said no, we could not do anything about it.
Later on, we introduced the ministerial positions. We said, "All right, eight is good enough. Let us have eight Ministers." We did not fill those positions in one day. Some of those positions would wait for two years because there was confusion between those Ministers' positions. We were trying to take over the Commissioner's portfolio at the same time. The Commissioner said, "All right, it is time for me to go. You will take over." We filled those four ministerial positions. Later on, it was working smoothly.
Somehow, elections came and went by again and again. Jealousies seemed to be rising. "Why do I not have that power as a Minister? Why do the people in the north not treat me like a Minister?" One starts to feel that he/she should not be a Minister, that "maybe that guy is better than me." The other guy says, "No, I am better than him or her." It goes back and forth now. I think we are all accountable. No matter where you go, you will never find a better government. It does not matter how long you take or where you go, they will never be accountable. You wonder what is satisfactory with the government. Maybe one person out of this entire room is satisfied with this good government. All the other people will never be satisfied. I guarantee that is true. I am asking for the honourable Members' consent to continue.