Senator Dalphond, you raise an important issue, and I want to acknowledge the humility you demonstrated in referring to the institutional memory of the Senate, and to Senator Ringuette’s visionary text of March 2014 concerning the interventions of our Senate colleagues who are more experienced than we are. I am still a new senator. This is one of the few places where I can call myself a newbie, after three and a half years, and the fact that you arrived in the Senate after me also means I can consider you as a fellow newbie.

I think that, essentially, the principle of democratically electing a Speaker pro tempore in this institution is essential. Therefore, I fully subscribe to your proposal of a secret ballot. However, things must be done right. Your motion concerns a process that would be established by the Speaker, in consultation with the leaders and facilitators, to determine how this secret ballot would be conducted. I believe that your proposal fails to consider a fundamental constitutional right that this institution must uphold, namely the right concerning Canada’s official languages.

Therefore, honourable senators, in amendment, I move:

That the motion be not now adopted, but that it be amended:

1.by adding the following before the last paragraph:

“2. the senator elected to serve as Speaker pro tempore shall be required to possess the full and practical knowledge of the official language which is not that of the Speaker for the time being;”; and

2.by renumbering the final paragraph as number 3.