Mr. Gary Kowalski (The Maples): Do I have leave to make a nonpolitical statement?

Madam Speaker: Does the honourable member for The Maples have leave to make a nonpolitical statement? [agreed]

Mr. Kowalski: Madam Speaker, yesterday I ran the Manitoba Marathon for the first time in my life, and I want to congratulate the organizers of the Manitoba Marathon, the corporate sponsors, the hundreds of volunteers that I saw. It was a wonderfully run event. It was a pleasure to take part in it, although the pain I am having right now, I do not know if it is that pleasureful.

Also, I want to thank a number of members of this Chamber who gave me some wonderful advice, the member for Sturgeon Creek (Mr. McAlpine) who had given me nutritional advice and the member for Rossmere (Mr. Toews) and the member for Riel (Mr. Newman), who are marathon runners themselves who gave me some wise counsel. Unfortunately, I did not listen to their wise counsel, and for the first three miles I was running at seven minutes a mile and burnt myself out, so I was lucky to finish in three hours and 46 minutes.

Also, I wanted to mention my parents because it was also a very emotional event for me, because I have mentioned before when I was six years old I spent almost eight months in hospital with rheumatic fever. I was told that I would never be able to be involved in strenuous physical activities. My parents, being very independent-minded people, did not listen to the doctor's advice and continued to push me to this point where this is the pinnacle of my physical activity, to run a marathon. So I want to pay tribute to my parents for all the encouragement they gave me over the years to allow that.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.