Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to congratulate Raymond Beck of Hay River, the 1995 winner of the Canadian Championship Dog Derby held over the weekend in Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, I spoke in my last Member's statement about the Dog Derby and how important it was to the sport of dog racing; a tradition that goes back in the history of the territories. This is the 40th year it has been run. It is always nice to see northern sports won by northern athletes. This is an instance where the family Beck is showing up well in the performance of this sport. There were no fewer than five Becks racing in this race finishing in the first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth positions.
When I look back in history, the Becks go back a long way in the sport of dog racing, back to 1957 when Ray Beck Sr., father of Raymond Beck, won seven times altogether. Of course, Grant and Richard Beck have taken two and three championships in a row. This year, we were well attended. We had people from the United States, British Columbia and across the territories. We had a very special guest this year, a lady racer, Monique Béné from France who raced and came in eighth place.
To all of the racers and the handlers who presented this sport to us in spite of the conditions that we face, I would like to offer them a very hardy congratulations, particularly to the Beck family for their valuable contribution to the sport of dog racing, not only here in the Northwest Territories and Canada, but internationally as well.