Communities provide "important service to the Azores" in disseminating the "new" Azores in Canada, says Vasco Cordeiro
The President of the Azorean Government conveyed in Ottawa his pride in the Azorean communities of Canada, considering that they also provide "an important service to the Azores" in disseminating the new reality of the Azores in this country.
"If it is true that this visit has the purpose of knowing better our communities in Canada, it is also an opportunity to disseminate the Region we have today, which is quite different from the one that was the Region they left years ago," said Vasco Cordeiro.
The President of the Government spoke Wednesday at a meeting with the Azorean community in Ottawa, held at the Lusitânia Portuguese Recreation Centre, as part of the Prime Minister’s official visit to Canada.
At the invitation of António Costa, Vasco Cordeiro is taking part in this official visit, which will run until Saturday, May 5. The agenda includes, among other things, various institutional contacts and meetings with communities in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.
Speaking before Azoreans and Portuguese descendants, the President of the Government stressed that the promotion of the new reality of the Azores in Canada is an "important service that can be provided in favour of our cause."
"This is also a way of asserting our Region and our country in Canada," Vasco Cordeiro said, expressing his pleasure in participating in this meeting. It was an opportunity to "convey a very warm greeting from the Azores, the land that our people, whether by necessity or choice, decided to leave to look for a better future in Canada."
"This visit also has this meaning: the years may pass but you are not forgotten, just as you do not forget the land where you were born," said the President of the Government.
On the occasion, Vasco Cordeiro also conveyed his pride, as President of the Azorean Government, "to see what the Azoreans have helped building in Canada, because the development and progress of this country is also the result of this work and commitment."
Today, the President of the Government attends the meeting with the Governor General of Canada, Julie Payette, and takes part in an extended meeting with the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
The agenda for this day also includes exchange of greetings Speaker of the Senate, George J. Furey, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, Geoff Regan, as well as a meeting with the Canada-Portugal Parliamentary Friendship Group.
The Portuguese migratory flow to Canada was largely made up of emigrants from the Azores, who took to this country - especially to Toronto and Montreal - the traditional cultural practices of the archipelago.
This year marks the 65th anniversary of the arrival of the first group of Azorean immigrants in Canada, who disembarked from the ship "Saturnia" in Halifax on May 13, 1953.
It is estimated that about half a million Portuguese and Portuguese descendants live in Canada, namely in the province of Ontario; about 70% are Azoreans or of Azorean descent.