Mr. Speaker, as a Rotarian I am pleased to rise today and pay tribute to the largest and fastest growing service club in the world, Rotary.
As of this month membership totalled 1,187,509 Rotarians from 27,995 clubs in 154 countries around the globe. In Canada we have 29,183 members in 650 clubs. This year's Rotary international president, Herb Brown, has chosen as his theme: "act with integrity, serve with love and work for peace". In serving with love, Rotary has raised over $400 million toward the polio plus project, a project dedicated to the elimination of polio from the face of the earth.
Visiting today are 18 Rotarians from my home club in Barrie who are here on an exchange with the Ottawa West club. Many members of the House are Rotarians and I ask that they join with me in recognizing Rotarians for their work in communities right across Canada and indeed the world.