moved for leave to introduce Bill C-423, An Act to support Canadian professional football.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my seconder, the member for Edmonton—Strathcona, a big fan of the Edmonton Eskimos.
As we all know, we are celebrating a century of the Grey Cup in Canada. Canadian professional football is like football nowhere else on the planet. It has older traditions dating back further than anywhere else on the planet. Our athletes in Canadian professional football have shown time and time again that they contribute to Canadian culture and the economy in local communities across the country.
Tonight the pre-season begins for the Canadian Football League. This bill would help to protect the CFL in perpetuity, making sure that fans not only for today and next year but a decade from now can enjoy Canadian professional football. We know that fans are lining up from British Columbia to Montreal and we hope soon they will also be able to see Canadian professional football in Ottawa and why not Quebec City or Halifax.
Unlike the NHL, where an American lawyer can decide whether Winnipeg or Hamilton gets a team, Canadian football is our game. Tonight the CFL begins. The NDP is supportive of the CFL.
If I can be permitted a final partisan note, I would like to say for 2009, go BC Lions.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)