Mr. Speaker, October 24 each year is World Polio Day, a day when people around the world organize activities to shine a spotlight on the importance of global polio eradication.
As a proud Rotarian, I stand with thousands of others in Canada to thank the Rotary, the Gates Foundation and our government for co-funding a major international effort to vaccinate our fellow world citizens to prevent this terrible disease.
The eradication of polio is on target, thanks to an unrelenting global effort, an effort in which Canada was at the forefront as the first country to donate to the global polio eradication initiative. Canada has been and remains a staunch ally in the global effort to immunize millions of children against the disease.
Earlier today, members of my home club, the Mississauga-Meadowvale Rotary Club, were at the Meadowvale GO station handing out pamphlets and seeking continued donations for polio treatment.
Let us continue to make the pledge that we will all work together to eradicate polio from our planet once and for all.