Canadian Heritage committee  I think it's the infrastructure. I think it's having the coaches, the officials, the administrators, the females around the game as far as getting increasing participation. They're the voices, the champions who will go out there and get the younger girls involved. As I said earli

Canadian Heritage committee  Saskatchewan is definitely a unique situation as far as football is concerned. Even with hockey, it was always positive when I was there and very strong. Football Saskatchewan is a great example for a lot of NSOs as well PSOs. The CFL fifty-fifty money that they get from the Rou

Canadian Heritage committee  Talking about the media, and just on my Cassie Campbell example, I think with the increased media and respect for the female athlete, coach, and official that are on TV, for the younger viewers, those males, it will be the norm. In that room with the boys, it was just the norm. C

Canadian Heritage committee  One of my best examples is when I was working for Hockey Canada. We used to run the Chev safe and fun program with Cassie Campbell, Bobby Orr, and Mike Bossy. We used to go to these events. The kids had no idea who Bobby Orr was or who Mike Bossy was—it got the parents there—but

Canadian Heritage committee  One challenge is purely the number of females who have been involved in the game earlier in their lives. Most don't have the experience. What I saw in hockey was that a lot of them had played the game but were a little hesitant to coach or officiate, but then they did come out, w

Canadian Heritage committee  Sure. Just on the football side, I've put some of the statistics in my notes. These are just from Saskatchewan. In 2011, there were 384 female football players, and currently there are 1,440. The bulk of those are in flag football, but the senior women's contact league has also c

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. Thank you for the invitation to appear today. There aren't many opportunities to talk about women's football in front of a parliamentary committee. Just as a little bit of background, we are talking about North American football. There are females participating in No