Canada has a strong history of medal success in all three sports and the removal of these sports may diminish our overall medal count at future Pan American Games,

The 2006 Olympic Winter Games have been a great success for Canada. We set an aggressive goal of a top-three finish at these Games and we will leave Turin having achieved that goal.

If I bet on sports ? I would never embarrass Team Canada or the country or hockey ? I would phone (NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman and Bob Nicholson right now and say you know what, I resign, it's over, even if I made a $1 bet.

I would suggest that we have excellent sports organizations that have now started to take the Canada Games as a very important part of the training process. But it comes down to the athletes. Nothing more.

Given the different national conditions of China and Canada and given our different history and cultural traditions, it is quite normal for our two countries to have different views about human rights.

We're not concerned about the election. Canada has a long history of stability through changing governments. We're committed to working with whichever government is in place.