Mr. Speaker, on International Women's Day we pay tribute to women around the world.
Women are our mothers, our sisters, and our daughters. They formed the foundation of our society in the darkest periods of history. Today, we celebrate all their past and ongoing contributions.
On this day I would like to highlight my own mother not for one special accomplishment but for a lifetime of compassion, hard work, and perseverance. She was solely responsible for raising a family during troubling times and imbued her children with the values that would guide them through their ambitions. She exemplified the unshakable characteristics that strong women can have, characteristics that woman in Vimy and all of Canada exhibit daily as they help empower our children and all women.