The federal Minister of Sport believes the rest of Canada should follow Manitoba’s lead and implement mandatory physical education and activity for school children from the day they begin junior kindergarten until they graduate from high school.

“Manitoba is the only province that has mandatory physical activity in its schools from junior kindergarten through to Grade 12,” Bal Gosal said during a campus visit yesterday. “It’s very important. I truly believe that once you get involved in sport and physical activity, you excel in education too.”

Gosal, Conservative MP for the riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton, spoke yesterday morning to human kinetics students in professor Ryan Snelgrove’s first year sport and ethics class. During his lecture, he spoke about the federal government’s Canadian Sport Policy 2012, which among other things, aims to increase the number and diversity of Canadians who participate in sports and physical activity.

He said provincial sports and recreation ministers from across the country support the principle of increasing physical activity, but lack consensus on exactly how to do it.

“They all agree that kids should be more active but when it comes to making changes, it takes a long time,” he said. “But we’ll get there.”

After the lecture, students and visiting faculty asked Gosal questions about a number of subjects including anti-doping measures, increased support for student athletic scholarships, sports betting and gender equity in sports.