Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff embarked on a week-long, country-wide town hall tour on Saturday afternoon by touring the Scarborough branch of Toronto’s Cross Cultural Community Services Association and holding a meeting with new Canadian families at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto.
“The young mothers and fathers I spoke to today are still waiting for the economic recovery to impact upon their lives,” said Mr. Ignatieff. “As Canada’s demographics rapidly change to include more new Canadians from all backgrounds, the Conservative government is not providing all communities with equal chances for prosperity – for this generation and the next. We must do better, and a Liberal government will.”
To kick-off his tour leading up to the Liberals’ Canada at 150 conference later this month in Montreal, Mr. Ignatieff visited the Scarborough facilities of the Cross Cultural Community Services Association where programs ranging from settlement services to seniors support are provided for the ethno-cultural communities in the Greater Toronto Area. Later that day, Mr. Ignatieff hosted a town hall at the Chinese Cultural Centre where he touched upon crucial issues such as day care and pension reform in questions from the floor.
“It is a great pleasure to host Mr. Ignatieff and to see those who come here regularly, for their kids, for their parents or themselves, get a chance to speak with him,” said Eliot Yip, the Executive Director of the Cross Cultural Community Services Association. “For me it is fitting that his tour begins here. I think my association provides a perfect snapshot of the Canada of today, and of the challenges and opportunities that will define Canada in the years ahead.”
This week Ignatieff continues his tour in Montreal, St. John’s, Regina, Winnipeg and Burnaby, BC, before he returns to Ottawa in preparation for Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge in Montreal, where more than 200 of Canada’s leading thinkers and doers will meet from March 26-28, 2010. The conference – which will be webcast live – will take on the challenges facing Canada as non-partisan participants examine what Canada can and should look like in 2017, when we mark the country’s 150th birthday, and what needs to be done today to get there.
