Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many people are very confused because, in our Assembly, we have a Mace, which is supposed to represent something. People are not sure exactly what it does mean.
Mr. Speaker, a long time ago, as we all know, if you had power, you had to have a way to keep that power. Usually it was by the force of arms. In other words, the strongest people with the biggest army were the people that held power. The club of the Mace was a symbol of power.
In this House, however, Mr. Speaker, we do not inflict our will on other people by force of arms. We do it in a peaceful manner. That Mace, which sits in front of us, does not represent power which is imposed on other people, it sits quietly on the table, and we settle our differences like peaceful people, through debate. Those people who worry about having this symbol, should regard it not really as a symbol of great power that people have over other people, but as the right of ordinary citizens to represent themselves, if you like, in a peaceful manner in this House. It has become not a symbol of great authority and great strength, but really as a symbol of peace. What you have, is that we have laid down our arms, we have put them on the table, and we discuss our differences in a peaceful, dignified fashion.
Mr. Speaker, when I look at that Mace, I recall that I knew all the people that made it. A small group of people in Cape Dorset in 1956, sat down and took a piece of narwhal tusk, and got copper from the Coppermine River, and got beads from the MacKenzie River area, the MacKenzie Valley, and got pieces of wood from the ships that, at one time, explored the Northwest Passage, and they created a thing of beauty. That group of people worked cooperatively, and did it in a very, very short time, on the request of the then Governor General of Canada, Vincent Massey. Since that time, we have had something which is our own, a symbol of the authority of the people, and a symbol of peace. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.