Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, stand up today to support this motion. I thank my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen for putting it forward.
I think, Mr. Speaker, you have to remember -- I'm going back 50 or 60 years ago -- we were introduced to this substance alcohol by westerners and it's a well-known fact that back in the United Kingdom and Europe it's normal for them to do that. Whereas, in the short time, over the last 50 or 60 years, we were introduced to something that we weren't used to before. As I indicated in my Member's statement earlier, I grew up with my parents where they made homebrew and that was normal because that's all they had. I heard some of my colleagues here talking about going to high school in Inuvik. I never really got to try alcohol until I went to the high school in Inuvik where I ran into my peers, the same age, 16, 17 and 18 year olds that wanted to try it. Because you're at a young age, you want a challenge
because you're trying to defeat what's enforceable by government. I mean they have laws that if you're underage, you're not allowed to drink, but that's the kind of little things that I tried when I was growing up. It also came to a point when I started working for Imperial Oil out at Bar "C" two weeks on two weeks off. Being the youngest person at that time, my two weeks' paycheque went right to, you know, what became normal at the time, buying alcohol with my peers. That's how I saw myself spending my money. Working two weeks on and two weeks off and spending it in a place where it should never have been spent before, but it was just normal because we were growing up. We were learning the life of maybe the older people that were able to drink.
Following that, Mr. Speaker, I made one of the wisest choices when I went back home to go live with my parents again. That's where I came to realize that this alcohol is something that affects a lot of people. That's when some of the elders came up to me at that time and said look, you just got out of high school, you're young, why don't you get involved with local politics? That was one of the best, best choices that the elders ever told me. So I think from going back from 1978 on to today, I think I've learned a lot. Alcohol is there, you can have it as a social drink, but don't get it to a point where you're obsessed with it.
Like I say, I've been involved with politics now since 1978. I've gone through a lot of things before. I think having my parents behind me to show me the right path and also when I met my wife, Lucille, in 1978, she's the one that really made me smarten up after we had our first son. With affects like that it's important because if you have family to back you up when you need them most, you know, they're there. I appreciate my whole family for that and I'm glad to stand here today to say that although I drink once in a while, not to the excess where it's affecting me, but I would like to say, though, that there are ways that we can do it. But I really support this motion in terms of hoping the government can do something about it.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I think when we talk about alcohol I think government is one of the biggest factors that plays the big role because we are the ones that support it through government services sales, either government or privatized. So we're the ones that are supplying it to the communities and yet we're talking about how can we denormalize alcohol. Again, that's something that maybe, as government, we should look at. So I think, Mr. Speaker, that I will support this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause