HOUSE MEMORIAL 70

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2005

INTRODUCED BY

Mimi Stewart

A MEMORIAL

PROCLAIMING MARCH 20, 2005 TO BE "CANADA DAY" AT THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

     WHEREAS, Canada has produced many fine actors and comedians, including Jim Carrey, Donald Sutherland, William Shatner, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Mike Meyers, Michael J. Fox, Pamela Anderson and Keanu Reeves; and

     WHEREAS, Canada has produced many excellent musicians, including Neil Young, Sarah McLaughlin, Leonard Cohen, Guy Lombardo, Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Celine Dion and Gordon Lightfoot; and

     WHEREAS, Canada has produced many outstanding authors, including Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, Rohinton Mistry, Carol Shields, Yann Martel and Timothy Findley; and

     WHEREAS, Canada invented and has excelled at many sports that confound and amuse New Mexicans, including curling, broomball and lacrosse; and

     WHEREAS, Canadian David Frum has served as a speechwriter to George W. Bush, contributing to the state of the union address and coining the phase "axis of evil"; and

     WHEREAS, Canadian Jennifer Granholm was elected the forty-seventh governor of Michigan and, since taking office in January 2003, has eliminated a three-billion-dollar ($3,000,000,000) budget deficit and has cut more than one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) from the state's budget, the largest amount ever trimmed from state spending, while still making education, children, jobs and health care top priorities; and

     WHEREAS, Canada has produced many fine hockey players, as well as many fine beers that are enjoyed in New Mexico and elsewhere in the United States; and

     WHEREAS, Canada has produced many Nobel prize-winning scientists, including Dr. Frederick Banting who discovered insulin, Dr. Michael Smith who discovered site-directed mutagenesis, Dr. David Hubel who mapped the visual cortex and Dr. John Polanyi whose work on chemi-luminescence has spawned the development of powerful new lasers; and

     WHEREAS, Canadians have invented many products useful to New Mexicans, including the telephone, the electron microscope, kerosene, newsprint, the zipper, standard time zones, the first cardiac pacemaker, the electric wheelchair, JAVA technology, the games of Yahtzee and Trivial Pursuit, the Jolly Jumper for babies, Saturday Night Live, Superman, the Robertson screwdriver and, most importantly, the retractable beer case handle; and

     WHEREAS, Canadian Henry Woodward invented the lightbulb, then sold the patent to Thomas Edison; and

     WHEREAS, Canadian James Naismith invented basketball, allowing both the men's and women's Lobos to go to the Dance;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that March 20, 2005 be designated as "Canada Day" at the New Mexico house of representatives to recognize the contributions of Canadians to the lives of many New Mexicans; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the prime minister of Canada.

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