Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are times when you take things for granted and on a day like today you get to thinking more and more about the contribution that women make to the lives of the people in the Northwest Territories. I'd like to stand today and honour that. There's so many times, Mr. Speaker, that I've seen women who are left to fend for themselves. I've known women that have left abusive relationships and are forced to start a life on their own with a large family. A lot of these women, Mr. Speaker, meet these challenges head on. I've known women who were widowed at a young age and again are faced with the challenges of raising a family alone.

Mr. Speaker, I've had the opportunity since I've been an MLA to speak at a few Aurora College convocations. One of the things that has always impressed me a great deal was the amount of women that were graduating while raising a family. Now, these are women in their mid-40s some of them, their late-30s. They have a family, but still they realize that to get a good life for their children, they go to school and they graduate and they go find a good job.

Mr. Speaker, there's an old saying, that behind every good man there is an even better woman.

---Applause

---Laughter

And that rings true in my case, Mr. Speaker. I'm here because of the faith that one person had in me and what I can do. So this is something that you don't really have an opportunity to think about and today is International Women's Day and we use this day to pay tribute to the contribution that women make across the Northwest Territories. But like my colleague from the Sahtu said, we must not just do it this day. I mean we must every day honour the contributions and be grateful to the contributions that women do make because years ago, Mr. Speaker, they did all the hard work and I've known a lot of women who are out working a job, trying to raise their families, their husbands in some cases are not

helping them, so they do make a sacrifice and I think that should be honoured. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause