Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: Honourable senators, I rise today to mark, in my own way, the fact that our colleague, the Honourable Senator Larry Smith, will be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

It is a rare honour to become a Canadian football legend. I say “rare” even though Senator Smith is the second member of this chamber to be awarded this honour. The other is the late Senator David Braley, who was also from Montreal and who owned the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the Toronto Argonauts, and the BC Lions.

Senator Smith is being inducted into the Hall of Fame in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Canadian professional football 50 years after he first donned the Montreal Alouettes uniform in 1972. Larry Smith played for nine consecutive seasons during which the team won the Grey Cup twice, once in 1974 and again in 1977. I must say here that, at the time, our colleague was playing for one of the greatest coaches in Canadian and American football in the 1980s and 1990s, Marv Levy.

After serving as the commissioner of the CFL for five years, from 1992 to 1997, Senator Smith went on to serve as president of the Montreal Alouettes, not once but twice. The first time was from 1997 to 2001, when he basically had to save the CFL. After a brief stint as the president and publisher of the Montreal Gazette, he returned and served as team president a second time from 2004 to 2010 and won the Grey Cup in 2009 and 2010.

If there is still a professional football team in Montreal, it is no doubt thanks to Senator Smith’s reputation and talent as a manager and communicator. Under his watch, the Alouettes played sold-out games for 10 years. That was such an accomplishment that, even today, when the Alouettes aren’t doing well, Larry Smith’s name often comes up in the news as the one who could potentially save the franchise, which was just purchased by businessman Pierre-Karl Péladeau.

In all honesty, both the Alouettes and The Gazette could use a man of Larry Smith’s calibre to help them survive today.

It is fair to say that this is a very well-deserved honour for Senator Smith. He has dedicated more than 30 years to bringing professional football to life and promoting it in Montreal, Quebec and Canada.

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate our friend, Senator Larry Smith.

Hip hip hooray!