Presenting the certificate to Senaka Samarasinghe
Naomi and I were fortunate to be able to attend the Sri Lanka New Year Dinner on April 21. It was a wonderful occasion to celebrate together and to enjoy the very colourful dancing and the entrancing music of many in the Sri Lankan Community. On behalf of Terry Duguid, I also presented a certificate to Senaka Samarasinghe for his contributions to his community, to Manitoba and to Canada. My remarks are below, along with further photos:
Subi Aluth Aurydak Wewa –
Happy New Year.
Thank you for the
opportunity to be with you this evening.
I have a special presentation to make, but first I want to bring
greetings on behalf of the Liberal Members of Parliament and the Liberal Members
of the Legislature in Manitoba and on Behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
and to wish all of you a Happy New Year. All of you – those who are Tamil and
those who are Sinhalese.
I want to specifically
mention Terry Duguid the Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South. Terry Duguid has been a very strong
supporter of the Sri Lankan community.
He is well aware of your contributions to Manitoba – in business, in
education, in health care and Ndance.
Terry, it must be said has been a strong support of immigrant
communities generally. Immigrants are
one of Manitoba’s major strengths.
Terry, I must also say, very much wanted to be here, but he was ordered by
our Prime Minister to be in Halifax at the National Liberal Convention this
weekend. He extends his greetings to
all of you.
In mentioning Terry
Duguid, I also want to talk of his efforts to help Manitoba’s Great Lake , Lake
Winnipeg. As you know, Lake Winnipeg
has experienced large algal blooms in recent years as a result of high levels
of phosphorous. Terry has, for many
years, but most particularly since he has become a Member of Parliament, been
very active in promoting research and in seeking solutions to help Lake Winnipeg
in obtaining funding for these efforts.
Though the effort to improve Lake Winnipeg may take many years, Terry
Duguid’s initiatives are a very important part of enabling these efforts to
continue so that all of us, our children, our grandchildren and our grandchildren’s
children can for generations to come can enjoy the wonders of Lake Winnipeg.
I also want to say a
few words about our provincial Manitoba Liberal Party. I will first mention Peter Bastians of your
community and to recognize Peter who has been on the Board of the Manitoba
Liberal Party and was a candidate for the Manitoba Liberal Party in the last
election in 2016. I am hoping that Peter
will run again, and that you will support Peter and support our provincial
Liberal Party as the party for all Manitobans.
We now have a strong team
in the provincial Legislature. We have
three elected MLAs – Judy Klassen, Cindy Lamoureux and myself. We are working closely with our new leader
Dougald Lamont and making every effort possible to get him elected in Saint
Boniface so he can join us in the Legislature.
Dougald, with a background in small business, in communications and in
teaching at the University of Winnipeg, is doing well as Leader and we are all
working well as a team.
Cindy Lamoureux, our
Liberal MLA for Burrows, has a major focus on immigration and on business and
labour issues. She is very well spoken,
is extraordinarily good at helping people in her own constituency, and is
reknowned for her use of social media.
Judy Klassen is our
Liberal MLA for Keewatinook the region on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. She has received many standing ovations in
the Manitoba Legislature for her passionate advocacy for the people she
represents. When many were evacuated
because of forest fires last year, she spent very long hours every day with the
evacuees while they were in Winnipeg helping them whenever there was a need. Recently she has walked a considerable
distance with a group from St. Theresa Point, Garden Hill and Wasagamack to
bring attention to the methamphetamine crisis in these communities, a crisis which
has arisen because drug dealers gave away free samples to youth evacuees when
they were in Winnipeg last summer.
Together we are all focused on better efforts to address the meth crisis
which affects to many communities in Manitoba.
For my part, I am
holding a series of public meeting on health care. To date we have held meetings in Brandon,
Grandview, The Pas, Flin Flon, Thompson, Winnipeg and Boissevain. The next one is in Portage la Prairie this
coming Tuesday. I am also, next weekend,
as Education critic holding a public forum on the future of primary and secondary
education in Manitoba.
Now, to my primary task
– which is to recognize someone from your community who has made a major
contribution to your community, to Winnipeg and to Manitoba. This individual has been instrumental in
promoting Sri Lanka as a tourist destination and is working hard to promote
trade between Sri Lanka and Canada. He
has been involved with other community members in setting up meetings, one of
which two years ago, included the Sri Lankan High Commissioner Mr. Ahmen
Jaward. He is also Past President of
your Sri Lankan Association of Manitoba. As well, he is Communications Director for the
Sri Lankan 55 plus group. Senaka
Smarasinghe would you please step forward to receive this certificate of
recognition and a Canada 150 Maple Leaf pin which I am presenting on behalf of
Terry Duguid Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South. Terry texted me today from Halifax to extend
his personal congratulations to you.
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