Legislative Assembly Hon . Alexander B. Campbell — Premier and Attorney and Advocate General Mr. Speaker, in rising to participate in the Debate, I wish to join with t! i 3 expressions which have already been given to this House of our appreciation of the fact that you continue to preside over our deliberations. There seems to be an element of more sedateness in the House this year, compared to events in this As¬ sembly a year ago. And no doubt some heed has been given to your words of wisdom expressed on the opening day; I congratulate you, Sir, on the way in which you are presiding over events here. I want to congratulate the Mover and Seconder of this Address as well. They gave a fair coverage of the implications of this year's Throne Speech, as well as making some wise and careful comments on the situation in the Province today. Earlier this morning I began to prepare some remarks which I might have had occasion to deliver in the House today. After having heard the final fifteen minutes of the Leader of the Opposition, he has more or less settled the tone of the Debate to some extent. Perhaps the words were a little too harsh; perhaps I will have to soften my own a little bit, and perhaps I will start in a congratulatory mood. I want to congratulate the Leader of the Opposition on the manner in which he represented this Legislature at the- Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference in Uganda this past summer. I want to inform the members of this House that I have had communications from the Secretary of the Conference, who wrote to me from Alberta, stating that the Leader of the Opposition was a capable, able spokesman for the people of Prince Edward Island , and for the members of this Session, and we thank him for the able way in which he has represented this of ours abroad. (Applause) I wish as well, before he leaves, to congratulate him .... Walter R. Shaw : I'll be back, Mr. Premier. Hon. Alexander B. Campbell : .... on having presented a most able state¬ ment on behalf of the Opposition members in this House. I congratulate him in the words of the wise parliamentary advice that was handed to us some genera¬ tions ago, "That it is the duty of the Opposition to oppose." And oppose he did! As the wise counsellor on parliamentary procedure added, "if by misfortune, the Opposition is forced to agree with the policies or the programs of government, it should see that it agrees with the least possible grace." I conclude, Mr. Speaker , that this is exactly what the Leader of the Opposition did. He went down fighting, and he certainly endeavoured to "spank" the government. Mr. Speaker , we don't mind this. I think it is only logical that we are not going to present the perfect solution to all of the problems facing us in the Province all at once. We believe that we have a public mandate to do our best, to tackle the problems at hand, and to conduct the business of government as best we can in the interests of the people of this Province. And we can only expect that the Leader of the Opposition and the mem¬ bers of the Opposition will remind the government of any short-comings, remind the government of the problems. These problems have been outlined in very great detail by the Leader of the Opposition. However, referring to his notes in the address of last evening, he made some comparisons with the record of previous years when, as he said, "we had a very constructive and satisfactory program in this Province. A period in which we had the confidence of the people, in which we had a strongly balanced economy, and our farmers, our labourers and our fish¬ ermen, and business men were in a strong position and the records were there to prove it." This demonstrates, Mr. Speaker , the blissful ignorance with which the Lead¬ er of the Opposition presided over the government, the former government. Ignor¬ ance of the real problems that were then at hand in this Province, and it is clearly evident to this government, Mr. Speaker , that the policies of the former govern¬ ment are no longer appropriate, were not then appropriate to the problems of this Province, and are not today appropriate to present solutions to the problems of our —44—