Mr. Speaker, this past weekend, I was pleased to attend Thunder Bay's 41st annual Folklore Festival. This world tour of nations highlights our multicultural diversity and showcases the wonderful, tolerant, and supportive residents of Thunder Bay and northwestern Ontario.
There were two days of fabulous entertainment, including traditional dance groups from Bangladeshi, Chinese, Japanese, Scottish, Irish, Portuguese, Indian, Caribbean, first nations, and Filipino communities.
There was the Community Arts and Heritage Education Project, the ever popular Macgillivray Pipe Band, and of course the Zorya and Chaban Ukrainian dance groups.
Special thanks to Walid Chahal, president of the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association, and to Folklore Festival chair Jim Squier, and to the volunteers, sponsors, exhibitors, and artists who have done Thunder Bay proud yet again.