Madam Speaker, over the years I have had the pleasure of being a fan at a number of Canadian curling championships, known to all as the Brier.
It is always a show of great skill and sportsmanship where every game starts and ends with the teams shaking hands, where all good shots, regardless of which team makes them, are cheered, and anyone, either fan or competitor, who shows poor sportsmanship is chastised. The mascot, Brier Bear, is loved by all, including my two year old granddaughter Kaitlyn.
This year's Brier in Edmonton was the first hosted by Tim Hortons and set an all-time attendance record of 282,000 fans. The televised final between Randy Ferbey of Alberta and Shawn Adams of Nova Scotia was watched by 1.3 million Canadians.
Congratulations to the Ferbey rink, that great team from Alberta, for the fourth Brier victory as a team, and to Randy Ferbey for his sixth win as a player.
I know everyone in the House and fans across Canada wish them luck representing Canada at the World in Victoria in April. By the way, my money is also on Randy, Dave, Scott and Marcel to bring home Olympic gold from Italy in 2006.