Mr. Speaker, as a student at Loyola College in Montreal, I remember going to see Les Expos when they introduced Canadians to a major league baseball team they could call their own. I remember the announcer at Jarry Park calling “The catcher, John Bock-a-bella.”
I remember Rusty Staub—“Le Grand Orange”—Rhéal Cormier and Larry Walker, the first Canadian this century to win a major league batting title.
Let us never forget that the Montreal Expos brought together not only citizens of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, but all Canadians. They unified a country; they aroused a passion for the game of baseball.
If the Expos strike out for the last time, Canada's field of dreams will be forever diminished.
And that is sad.