Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House and the people of Canada that February is heart disease awareness month.
We are proud of the Canadian heart health initiative, a multi-level collaboration encouraging Canadians to adopt healthy lifestyles and to create working and living conditions conducive to healthy choices.
Each year, some 79,000 Canadians die from heart disease or stroke. This is a huge loss for Canada.
Great progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go in the fight to reduce the major risk factors, such as smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes.
The quality of life of a myriad of Canadians will be enormously improved, but we as Canadians must choose to invest in heart health by mobilizing society as a whole.