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PM attends Rotary Pond Hockey Tournament in Mirimachi
6 February 2009
Mirimachi
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.Boys and girls.
All fellow hockey lovers.
Thank you Tilly for that warm introduction.
Greetings to Mayor Cormier, to members of the Legislative Assembly, and a special greeting to our troops from CFB Gagetown.
Thanks also to the Rotary Club of Newcastle for inviting me to your fifth annual pond hockey tournament.
This organization has done tremendous work for the community in particular raising money for important local causes through this tournament.
Friends, it doesn’t get any more Canadian than this.
Families, friends, and neighbours joining together outdoors in the middle of winter on a frozen patch of ice to play some old-fashioned pond hockey, and support a good community cause.
Places like this are where our great national winter game was conceived.
On long pond in Windsor, Nova Scotia, on the harbour at Kingston, Ontario, even, history tells us, on Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories – Canadians have been playing shinny outdoors on lakes, ponds, rivers, and rinks like this for the better part of 200 years.
This is the essence of the Canadian spirit, and a big part of the secret of our success as a country.
If you can play hockey outdoors at 20 below, you can do just about anything.
And there’s no better place to do it than here in the Miramichi, a great place to visit at any time of year.
I want to wish all the participants in this year’s tournament good luck and good fun.
Keep your heads up, your feet warm, and your beer cold.
Finally, in closing, I just want to pay tribute not only to the Rotary Club, but to all the volunteers who make this great event possible.
Have a great tournament!
