Mr. Speaker, Port Alberni on Vancouver Island has been selected among the top 25 contenders in the CBC Kraft Hockeyville competition. Tonight on CBC, the field of champions will be reduced to 10.
Despite tough economic times, the citizens of Port Alberni never fail to band together and work for the good of the community. They raised an amazing $2.7 million to build a multiplex arena, home of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs Junior A team.
Chamber meetings, council meetings, every organization try to avoid a conflict with the Bulldogs game.
This city of about 20,000 has set the standard for community involvement. It is the only British Columbia city to have hosted all four provincial games, the winter games, the summer games, the senior games and the disability games
Officials in Port Alberni have been so touched by the struggles of other communities in the competition that they are now offering to share their expertise in community development.
I invite all Canadians to tune in to CBC tonight at 8 p.m. Cheer for all the worthy communities and vote Port Alberni for the title of Hockeyville. Go Port!