Hon. Pierre J. Dalphond: Honourable senators, quite a pleasant aspect of my role as leader of the independent senators of the Progressive Senate Group is to welcome new members to this chamber. Last week, we welcomed five impressive new colleagues with very different life experiences, each eager to contribute to our work on behalf of Canadians.

Today we have an encore. It is my honour to welcome the last of the newly appointed senators, the Honourable Pierre Moreau. Maybe he is not the last one because there was another announcement at noon.

Our new colleague has roots throughout Quebec. He grew up in Verchères and studied law at Université Laval in Quebec City. He settled in the Montreal area with his life partner of over 40 years, the Honourable Michèle Monast, my former colleague at the Quebec Superior Court.

They have a second home in the Charlevoix region, which is part of his senatorial division, the largest in Quebec. We have heard quite a bit about it from our colleague, Senator Tannas.

Pierre has then become the second “honourable” in the family, but he’ll have to remind himself every day that he’s the one with the least seniority, especially when it comes to household chores. In 2003, he left his career in law for a 15-year stint as a member of Quebec’s National Assembly, holding several ministerial positions in the cabinets of Premier Charest and Premier Couillard. I have it on good authority that he was a workaholic, a minister with both hands on the wheel, and a formidable parliamentarian — a diligent man with a sense of humour and sometimes even an incisive edge.

He returned to Montreal to practise law but never lost his passion for politics. He was a daily panellist on the RDI network as a member of a team of high-profile former politicians. I heard from another reliable source that he was always the most prepared and he never uttered a falsehood. After a few seasons on television, he decided to focus on practising law and became a managing partner at his firm.

However, he missed serving the public good so he submitted his application for a seat in this chamber. Now he is here with us, ready to contribute to our work and to the modernization of the upper chamber of our Parliament.

On behalf of all senators and independent senators of the Progressive Senate Group, I welcome you to the Senate, Senator Moreau. We look forward to working with you. Congratulations and welcome.

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.