Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to, first of all, thank my family back in Tulita and the people and my family members in the Sahtu region for supporting me. Mr. Speaker, without them, we say our family is so important to our life, more so in the job that we do today as MLAs, as Ministers, as Members of the Legislative Assembly. My family members are there at the end of the day.
I want to also thank my friends and thank my ready campaign team, which we had a break from the campaign thanks to the gift of the Sahtu people for acclaiming me as their representative in this Assembly. I really say it’s a gift and I really want to thank the elders who spoke for me in my term as an MLA. I thank the people from the bottom of my heart to be given an opportunity at that time to take some time because of this work that we do -- a lot of time is spent away from our families -- and to really have the opportunity to go into the bush and spend some time with my family, take my little boy and my wife and go in the mountains and do some hunting up there for them. I really appreciate that as a gift from my people in the Sahtu region.
Mr. Speaker, I said the elders are the key to my representing the people in the Sahtu and the one person that I really, really regretted yesterday, in terms of the work that went on yesterday, was my mother. I wanted to really see or hear and to physically make that phone call and tell her that all her hard work and sacrifice that she did when we were young, that she could be thanked from the bottom of my heart. I said a prayer last night: I thank Mom wherever you are for guiding me and for persevering in her discipline to us in terms of getting the best in life. You have to work hard on that.
Mr. Speaker, for that, I want to say to all the young people in the Sahtu region and the people in the Northwest Territories: Dream big; dream the dream that you want to be in life because it could happen with hard work, education, hard, good values to live by. I want to say that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.
---Applause