Mr. Speaker, Windsor, Nova Scotia, is known as “The Little Town of Big Firsts” and this weekend the Hants County Exhibition, the oldest agricultural festival in North America, continues for the second of two weekends in the town.
On October 4 the 19th annual pumpkin festival and weigh-off will be held. Windsor's Howard Dill, developer of the Atlantic giant pumpkin seeds is credited with launching the international craze of growing giant pumpkins. Known as the Pumpkin King, Mr. Dill is a four-time world champion pumpkin grower.
The festival now includes the hugely popular pumpkin regatta to be held on October 12. The Windsor-West Hants Pumpkin Festival and Regatta won the 2002 Attractions Canada award in the sporting event category.
Mr. Speaker, I actually won the pumpkin regatta in 2001, by the way.
But as the birthplace of hockey, the home of North America's oldest agricultural fair, and now the new home of giant pumpkin racing, Windsor-West Hants continues to be the “Little Town of Big Firsts”.