Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see there are many others who want to speak to this important piece of legislation.
I want to congratulate my friend from Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey for introducing Bill C-454, an act to provide for the recognition of the Canadian horse as the national horse of Canada.
I need to say thank you to constituents Yvonne and Jim Hillsden of Cherry Creek who brought this issue to my attention some time ago. They are proud to be one of the three major British Columbia breeders of the Canadian horse. They brought this issue to national attention. They have urged me to support this bill and I will do so with a great deal of enthusiasm. I would like to see that this very important national symbol is recognized.
As others have said, this whole issue began back in 1647 when a horse was brought over from France as a gift for the governor of the day. It was considered unfitting for a knight to be without a horse and to have to walk through the mud or ride in an ox cart like the other people had to do. This horse was the first modern horse to gallop along on Canadian soil.
Not long after that there were imports of other horses from France. It is fair to say that the breed itself is recognized as coming from King Louis XIV and is a combination of Spanish Barb horses, Andalusion horses, French Norman horses and horses with Breton blood in them. It is a very interesting breed.
Many of us have seen this horse perhaps for the first time in the artwork of Cornelius Krieghoff which depicts scenes from the province of Quebec. For many years we saw through his work these small horses working the land, carrying children to school, sick people to doctors, pulling cutters and carriages. Off and on they provided entertainment in the form of racing on lakes at night after the gruelling work was completed. It was such gruelling work that there was an attempt to ban the racing because of the danger to the horses but the spirit continued and the racing went on.
These little horses had a number of nicknames. One was the little iron horse. It had that name because it was a relatively small horse but it was a tough horse. It existed in that time in new Canada on very poor quality food, out in the cold with minimal shelter and did very hard work.
The long and the short of it was that only the very strongest of these animals survived. A very hardy breed resulted here in Canada. It went on to be one of the founding breeds of a number of the horses that are very familiar to us today in various parts of the United States and other parts of the world. I am speaking of the Tennessee Walking Horse, the Saddlebred horse and of course the Morgan horse. To this day when viewing the Morgan one can see that little iron horse from Canada standing there in a slightly different form.
It also went on to have other nicknames. The most recent one is that it is called Canada's best kept secret because until fairly recently it was focused only in one part of Canada. Only in recent years have vast numbers of Canadians become aware of this wonderful horse and to appreciate what its contribution to the modern world of horses could be.
We are fortunate because it almost became extinct. It was very popular in Canada particularly during the American civil war. Its hardiness, sturdiness and ability to work hard was appreciated. Thousands were sent to the United States to take part in that dastardly civil war. We came very close to losing this breed. At one point there were only a few hundred left. I am pleased to say that as a result of breeders taking on this challenge right across Canada, particularly in the province of Quebec, today we are talking of at least a few thousand horses of this Canadian breed.
I could speak a great deal about this horse. It is an incredibly friendly animal. Its primary purpose today would be to pull carriages and that sort of thing. It is also a great working horse. I have seen the horse in action. Any horse owner would be very proud to have one. I hope one day to own one of these horses myself on my own farm. I look forward to that day. It is not there yet but it is the kind of horse I would like to see as part of my operation.
The New Democrats will support this bill. We support it with a great deal of enthusiasm. This is an excellent initiative being brought forward by my colleague.
The United States does not have a national horse. I do not think Britain has a national horse. Obviously Peru has one. We see more and more Peruvian horses in Canada. Mexico has its own national horse. I think it is time that Canada too had its national horse and it should be the Canadian horse.