Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was sitting yesterday wondering what I'm going to say to the opening replies this afternoon. I was sitting there and I got a phone call from my wife and she said that things were going around, how long are you going to be there, when are you getting back home. Then she was talking and she said oh, little guy, Scott, he's going to school today, Grade 1, he's going to school and he's crying. I said, put him on the phone. Got him on the phone and he says, Daddy, how long are you going to be? Mr. Speaker, he was in his very sad-toned voice and I said I'm going to be a couple days and we talked and at the end of the phone call I said listen to your mom, say your prayers and you've got to go to school tomorrow. It will be okay, Dad. He made those comments and he said he loved me.
As a politician, as an MLA, I really appreciate the Members who are leaving, not because they are leaving, I appreciate them because of what they have put on line for themselves to serve their own people, the sacrifices they have made, you know. So the instances like that that we don't really talk about amongst ourselves or to the public because we're there to serve the people, but foremost we've made that choice not knowing some of the circumstances we're going to run into. The missed birthdays, the missed anniversaries, decisions that we have to make even to attend the funeral of a loved one or to stay in the Assembly or to attend committee meetings. As MLAs, though, I really appreciate the sacrifice and the work they have done on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories, but also, more importantly, the sacrifice they had to live with for their family and their children. As leaders, that's what we strive to do.
It is said as leaders, Mr. Speaker, that in order to continue moving on up, you've got to stay up in terms of you've got to go up, you have to make some sacrifices. Those MLAs and to their families I have to really say that first and foremost to our own families and to our wives and, as Mrs. Groenewegen put it, to her husband and to our children the things that we really, really owe them at the end of the day when we put our head on the pillow, Mr. Speaker, in terms of the work that we do. At the end of the day, how is our family?
The people that work here in the Legislative Assembly daily, they put out, this is what they get as politicians, as MLAs, what they have put on the line for themselves also. We really need to think about this. This is a wonderful job, Mr. Speaker. You know, it says champions don't become champions in the ring, they're merely recognized just being there. MLAs just don't become MLAs in the Assembly, they're recognized in the Assembly and our work is very, very loud and clear, like Mr. Miltenberger told me when I came in, 24/7, 24/7, I still can hear. What did he mean 24/7? You know, it's so loud and clear.
Mr. Speaker, throughout the 3.85 years in the North as MLA at a new election here, Mr. Speaker, I heard some very good discussions in the committees in this House, good discussions with our former leaders of this Assembly, discussions with our leaders amongst ourselves about working together in the Assembly and the consensus is alive and well in the Northwest Territories. I'm so proud to be in this government that has consensus as a government. That's what we can continue to work on in terms of our vision for the people.
Mr. Speaker, I have to say that we have created a vision, it's now putting the picture together. We know what we want for our people, we've heard it, you know. We also heard that we need to have a rightful place in the Confederation of Canada. We need to look at that and see where our rightful place will be one day to sit with other provinces as equal...