Mahsi, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my appreciation and congratulations to the eight junior curlers and their two coaches for their excellent representation of the territories at the Canadian Pepsi junior national curling championships, which just concluded in Truro, Nova Scotia this past week.

The junior women's team of Tara Hamer, Kerry Koe, Kim Barraclough and Sheena Yakaleya won five games and lost six. With a little bit of luck, they easily could have made the play-off round. They curled excellently and demonstrated a big improvement over last year's showing. This team has a very good future. This team was coached by Ernie Comerford.

The junior men's team was skipped by Kevin Koe and was supported by Jamie Koe, Kevin Whitehead and Mark Whitehead and coached by George Gibson. They finished the round robin play in first place with a record of eight wins and three losses. This ensured them a spot in the final championship game. This game was played on Saturday afternoon and was televised by CBC Sports. Madam Speaker, in that game, and after the final stone was played by skip Kevin Koe, an unfortunate incident happened. The officials ruled against our Northwest Territories team, which denied them the Canadian championship.

However, in my mind, and I believe in the minds of the majority of the people across Canada who watched the game, our boys won that game.

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Given that they lost by a technicality, I know these boys can hold their heads up high because they are truly champions, in the true sense of the word. They demonstrated class, sportsmanship, excellent curling skills and a professional attitude. I believe many of us have tried all of our lives to be able to do what these boys showed us in front of a national audience.

---Applause

Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to continue.