Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will try to use humour to make a point. Mr. Speaker, when I was driving back to Yellowknife from one of my weekend trips, on November 29, it suddenly hit me -- a spruce hen, that is.

---Laughter

I would like to assure the Members that I wasn't speeding and it was definitely the chicken's fault. Mr. Speaker, they do considerably less damage to your vehicle than a bison. As I continued on my way, I got to thinking about this spruce hen and I had this sudden inspiration. Mr. Speaker, the spruce hen is a strange bird. As we all know, they are members of the grouse family of birds and are not the smartest in the world. As a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, when you ring or cut off the necks of these birds, they will keep going because they are not smart enough to realize they are dead.

---Laughter

Some people have even speculated that if someone cut off my head I would continue talking.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, spruce hens are grey and white in colour and, from a distance, look like they might be eligible for affirmative action. The interesting thing about them is once you clean them, you never know what colour the meat is going to be or what they will taste like. As we all know, Mr. Speaker, these birds eat spruce needles and store them in a little pouch in their throat for late-night snack purposes. They also eat gravel to aid in their digestion, so they taste gravelly.

Lately, Mr. Speaker, some of these chickens are on the chip seal portion of the highway between Yellowknife and Hay River, so they have this unique northern/southern taste, the sprucey, tarry kind. Mr. Speaker, the reason I am going on about these spruce hens is I am trying to use them as a symbol for one of my favourite causes, the gradual assimilation of native culture by the overpowering influence of Euro-Canadians. Over the last ten years, I have sometimes wondered if I have been successful in getting my point across.