Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s good to see you were saving the best for last.
I considered making a response to the opening address yesterday and I crafted a long list. Then I looked at it and it was all about me. Since I don’t like to brag about myself, I’ll just keep it short.
I did want to say farewell to a number of people who are leaving us today, and best of luck. First of all to yourself, Mr. Speaker. I think we’re the only two left from the people who were elected in the 14th Assembly. I thank you for your time here and
working with you. I want to wish you the best of luck.
Of course our Premier, who has decided not to run again. It’s been a real long eight years that we’ve worked together, especially in our time on Cabinet. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but we’ve managed to resolve issues and move forward.
I also wanted to wish David the best of luck. I think David is one of the few people that can still wear his moosehide jacket after all these years. The rest of us no longer fit them.
Most of us will be travelling home to start our campaigns, to start connecting with our constituents, and get our teams together, and start putting our platforms together if we haven’t already done so.
I wanted to say thank you to my staff over the years. I’ve had a number of constituency assistants. Lately Cynthia’s been working with me and she’s done a very good job and I’ve been very happy with her work. I also have to thank Doug Pon, who’s been with me for the whole term that I was a Minister of the last eight years. He’s always been very loyal and helped me steer out of trouble. Also Rachel, who has been with me in the last while and is doing a very good job; I’m very happy with her work.
I also have to say a special thank you to my family, who has stuck with me for these many years. It was interesting to hear my daughter at a federal candidates forum in Fort Providence who was there representing the youth and asked questions to the candidates. She did an interview with CBC later on and they asked her, they made the point of indicating to her that she seemed fairly familiar with territorial issues and wanted to know when she developed an interest in politics. She answered by saying that she was born into it. I think she was a young baby when I got involved in politics, and today she left for college. I’m very proud of her.