Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have heard from a number of Members around the table with their concerns and speaking to the issue, and nobody here denies anybody's right to speak on or vote a certain way. That is the reason we have this style of government. We can all speak and vote as we feel our constituents would want us to.
Let me make it very clear, Mr. Speaker. The reason for this motion was not one of personalities. It is one of integrity, as I see it, and I agree with Minister Miltenberger. I sure do not have the corner on that. I am only just a man, but a man who has decided to live his life different from others, I guess, to try to be better than I was the day before.
Yes, there are, probably every day I have shortcomings and what I set out to do the morning I wake up. Mr. Speaker, every morning for the last number of months, I phone my wife before coming down...when I am down in Yellowknife, to a committee or to session, and we join together in a prayer to help us guide us in our day, to give us strength and to do the things that are right for our family and for this government.
Mr. Speaker, we have all fallen short at one time or another. This is not about where you fall short as a person. You fall short on your education. You fall short on your ability to speak out in this forum. It is about the rules that we have to follow and are set out before us, Mr. Speaker. Take the names away from the issue. Remove the personalities and look specifically at the issue. Would the outcome be the same?
I am not sure what the answer would be on that, but it is the issue here, is a question. As I said in speaking to this the other day, if it were a one-time incident, if it were an isolated incident, then this House, yes, clearly accepted what was put forward, but there is a trail here, Mr. Speaker, that the poorest tracker can find with the incidents involved that come to this.
I hope, Mr. Speaker, once we are done here, that Members will hopefully reflect on this, either as we go to the polls or as we continue to sit in this House and try to hold our seats as honourable Members of the 14th Legislative Assembly.
There will still be more heated debates in this arena, so that the people of the Northwest Territories know their interests are being addressed. I take my commitment seriously to my constituents. I do not know if we know any politician who can say that when they ran for election, that when they were done, the day they were done, the last day of the fourth year, that they can say I have accomplished everything that I set out to do. There is always some unfinished business, and there will always be some unfinished business. Sometimes that unfinished business, the torch has to be handed to the next person that would come along and take an honourable seat in this House.
A number of us Members here are just putting that forward. Let's restore integrity. Let's show the people of the Northwest Territories we are willing to follow our own rules.
There is a song, Mr. Speaker, that says the rich man makes the rules that the poor man must follow. We are not all rich around here, and I know when I am done this career, if it does turn into that, that my pension will not be one that I can ride off into the sunset with, but I have to dust my tools off and get back to work. Mr. Speaker, my time here, I want to remember it as serving at the best of my ability with the public confidence and trust that I will make decisions in the best interest of the public, not for a couple of individuals.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.