Madam Speaker, I was going to make this statement tomorrow, but then on reflection, I thought if I did it tomorrow, people would think I was not serious. So, I thought I would do it today instead. But, having listened to Mr. Kakfwi, I am a bit confused now because I know he wants his statement to be taken seriously. The subject I want to talk about today, Madam Speaker, is one which is a serious subject. It has to do with schooling.

Twenty years ago it struck me that one of the things that happened in our school system is that the young girls did quite well. They seemed to adapt to it. It was natural. Whereas, the young guys seemed to go reluctantly to school, much as I did, I suppose, at times. But, usually, I found that the young boys in the system really didn't relate to the culture and environment of what a school is.

So, one day, upon reflection, I thought why is it that people want to go somewhere? It is because they are interested in what goes on there. The one thing that does not go on in our schools, from my observation, is the one thing that is central to the life of every young red-blooded Canadian boy, and that is the game of hockey.

I know, from my own experience, that if you really love something, you want to be close to it. You would have no difficulty in getting a young kid up in the morning to go to a hockey practice at 6:00 am if the school had a team and they were going to prepare for a game between Providence and Simpson or Wrigley and some other place. They would be keen, they would be excited.

You would find that if it was part of the culture of the school, those young boys would be motivated. Schooling would become more relevant to the things that mattered to them. You can have a basketball team, a volleyball team or a track and field team, but you can't have a hockey team; the implication being that this is too important a subject to be left to schools and that schools should really deal with the things that don't matter as much to young boys. Hockey is so important, it has to be left to the wider community.

Why is it in our system and in our culture, we have not given consideration to the fact that this one thing could maybe completely turn around what schooling means to a young boy in his formative years when his testosterone levels have to be tested...