Mr. Ted McWhinney (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I will not be a candidate for a third parliamentary mandate in the forthcoming general election. When the Prime Minister invited me to become a candidate in 1992, I said I would limit myself to two terms at most. I see no reason to depart from that today.

In leaving the House, I am not entering on early retirement. I am resuming my work in other national and international arenas like the Institut de Droit International, of which I am the current president.

Thank you to the electors of Vancouver Quadra for their kind support and warm encouragement through two successive terms.

I want to thank MPs of all political parties for their friendship, co-operation and goodwill.

Mr. Ted McWhinney (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, world renowned scientist Michael Smith died of leukemia on October 4, 2000 at the age of 68.

From England he came to the University of British Columbia in 1966 as a graduate researcher. His professional life was associated with UBC from that time onward.

In 1993 he was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry for his research on DNA. A modest man, he gave away all of his Nobel prize moneys to scientific research and to the development of future scientific leaders.

His influence is apparent in several of the revolutionary ideas present in the last several federal budgets: the millennium scholarship fund, the 2000 chairs of research excellence and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Mr. Ted McWhinney (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, British Columbia's Steve Nash has led the Canadian basketball team to the top of their section heading into the quarter-finals at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. In their last game, Canada upset the defending world champions, Yugoslavia, 83 to 75. Nash once again was the catalyst in that game, scoring 26 points with 8 rebounds and 8 assists.

We congratulate Canada's Olympic basketball team on their inspired performance at the Sydney Olympics as they approach a first Olympic medal in basketball since the 1936 Berlin Olympics where we won the silver medal.

Mr. Ted McWhinney (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition signed by 139 residents of Vancouver Island. It relates to divorce. Taking note of the divorce rate in Canada, the petitioners call on the Parliament of Canada to take immediate steps to amend the Divorce Act, taking into consideration the recommendations made by the parliamentary Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access.

Mr. Ted McWhinney (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, the late Mel Smith served as constitutional adviser to the government of British Columbia through a number of different premiers.

B.C. constitutional positions included the notion of the province as a distinct society, a constitutional idea accepted and confirmed by the present federal government in a joint resolution of both Houses of parliament recognizing B.C. as a fifth region within the federal constitution.

His book Our Home or Native Land? aroused lively debate as to the constitutional status of aboriginal land claims and the Nisga'a treaty in particular. The federal government expressly provided in the federal legislation enacting the Nisga'a treaty that it is legally subject to the constitution and the charter of rights.