Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise today on this first day back to Parliament to pass on some congratulations that are now long overdue to a wonderful group of young Canadians. They made all of us very proud over the holidays.
Shortly after Christmas my riding of Red Deer hosted the world junior hockey championships which the Canadian juniors not only won but were the first team in history to do so undefeated. This team did not have any one star who stood apart from the rest; they all pulled together and got the job done.
With the championship won, our junior players shared the pride of having won gold for Canada. Players from all across our country, east to west, including Quebec juniors like Alexandre Daigle and Eric Dazé, stood out as a unified team that took the world on and won.
Our world juniors have shown all Canadians what we can accomplish when we work together. There are no special stars needed, just hardworking team players. Nothing can stop Canadians who pull together and our world juniors proved it.