Mr. Speaker, a little over a year ago, Canada celebrated the opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. As we all know, the Vancouver games will go down in winter Olympic history as a tremendous success.
Our Canadian athletes outdid themselves and represented our country with great pride. Our government would like to highlight the incredible performance of the athlete who won the first gold medal on home soil. Exactly one year ago today, Alexandre Bilodeau won this precious medal in freestyle skiing. He was a great inspiration to the entire country, and his performance marked the beginning of a record number of medals for Canada. Alexandre Bilodeau's great determination and indomitable perseverance created a true spirit of unity across the country. His influence will continue to be felt by future generations of Canadians and will no doubt help to encourage our young athletes to follow in his footsteps.
It was a record year for Canada, with a total of no less than 14 gold medals. We will always remember this record performance.