Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to rise in this House for the first time as the newly elected member for Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park.
We come here representing different regions and communities; having different ethnic, religious or sexual identities; and carrying different ideologies and styles. However, I believe, in this Parliament, we come here for a common purpose: a stronger Canada, a more sovereign Canada and a stronger voice for our constituents in that Canada.
As we all know, we do not get here alone. I would like to thank those who helped put me in this chair, the people's chair: our campaign team, led by Christopher Knipe, James Janeiro and Maha Jawass.
I thank the members of the House who believed in me, even before my team and I did the hard work. Special thanks go to the Minister of Transport and Internal Trade, as well as the members for Fredericton—Oromocto, Toronto—St. Paul's, York South—Weston—Etobicoke and Spadina—Harbourfront.
I thank my family, my wife, my daughter and my son. Their love and support makes all this effort worthwhile, even if it also causes them grief. Most of all, I thank the volunteers and voters. They recognized what was at stake in the election. I will talk about that a little later.
I thank my family, my wife, daughter and son. It is thanks to their love, support and belief in me that I can do this work, work that makes their busy lives busier and takes a toll on them, all of their families and our families. This includes those members of our families who gave us love but are no longer here with us. I thank the volunteers on my campaign, from all parties and no party, and all the constituents of Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park. They saw, with great clarity, what was at stake in this election, that we needed to put new energy, new focus and new determination into this project called Canada, and they responded in record numbers.
I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Arif Virani, for his 10 years of service to our riding. Arif was and is a tireless, fierce defender of our community for justice and human rights. He helped make our judicial system more responsive and representative. He championed safer spaces online. His achievements on behalf of the riding and its people are many: making sure there was enough federal funding for Dunn House in Parkdale, the first hospital-led supportive housing initiative in Canada; speaking out against Russian aggression in Ukraine, making sure Canada was there to support Ukraine's cause for freedom; and the cause of self-determination for Tibet. Let us also honour his service in the House and its community here, whether it was for the Canadian Parliamentary Friends of Tibet internship program or the House soccer league. I hope we will continue this work or continue to emulate it in our own ways.
I will tell everyone a bit about Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park. It is small geographically, a little more than four kilometres by four kilometres nestled among railway tracks, the Humber River and Lake Ontario in west Toronto, but it contains multitudes. Taiaiako'n was a Haudenosaunee village on the banks of the Humber River and part of the Toronto Carrying Place trail linking Lake Ontario to the Upper Great Lakes, inhabited from at least 6000 BCE, near what is now Baby Point.
Parkdale was first a village, then a country retreat and, for decades since, a home for waves of people coming from all over the world to find community and opportunity in Toronto. High Park is the site of 57 Iroquois burial mounds, and it is the lungs and beating heart of our community. It is a home to cherry blossoms, baseball leagues and birders and a host to visitors from all around the world.
Many of us came from away, and many had a tough journey, fleeing communist regimes in Poland and Tibet, Ukraine and Vietnam, the Balkans and the Baltics. Immigrants from around the world, people in distress, have discovered our precious little corner of west Toronto to find and build community, to be just a bit freer.
Something very special happened in the last six months in Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park, and perhaps this experience was shared by other members of the House: People of all parties and of no party woke up to the threat to Canada's freedom, and they came together for Canada. It is a different kind of threat to freedom than the member for Elgin—St. Thomas—London South was talking about, because in the threat to freedom, they chose to connect. They chose to build bridges, to bridge divides. They chose, in fact, to consider not just their own interests but the interests of others in their riding, the national interest, because they saw that everyone's freedom was on the line. They saw what the Prime Minister described so well, that we are at a hinge moment in our history.
That hinge point woke people up to the fact that many in our community were already not free enough, that we need to build a stronger, more secure Canada for and with them. People woke up to the fact that in our community, there are people who fear persecution for their religious, ethnic or racial identity; their country of origin; or their sexual or gender identity. They woke up to the fact that even if they were not in one of those communities, their fight was our fight. They woke up to the fact that the fight of artists and creators of our community, who have been yearning for support for their work and to assert Canadian cultural sovereignty, is our fight.
They woke up to the fact that auto workers and resource sector workers are under threat, and even if they did not work in those sectors, even if they drove a European car, a Tesla or no car at all, their fight was our fight. They woke up to the fact that in terms of action on the existential threat of climate change, even if they will never live to see the worst of it if we do not act, this fight was our fight. For the people in our community with addictions, on fixed incomes and with multiple needs, even if that was not them or a family member, their fight was our fight. For the people, especially young people in our community who are yearning to live and stay here, their fight for housing was our fight.
When the throne speech speaks to one economy, it is because people in Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park have woken up to the fact that, for too long, the parochialism that occasionally slips into this chamber and into public policy across Canada has made us weaker. When the throne speech speaks to affordability, it is because we all need a focused, common approach to relieve our financial burdens. When it speaks to housing, it is because people need the freedom of an affordable place to live. When it speaks to a united Canada, it is because we have woken up to the fact that we need a new awakening, a new era of nation building. As the throne speech points out, that means our national institutions, such as the CBC, our national parks and Via Rail, need to be made stronger, and we need new nation building infrastructure to connect our electricity and energy systems and our economies from coast to coast to coast. When it speaks to the strongest economy in the G7, it is because people have woken up to what the Prime Minister said so well just a few minutes ago: We need a strong economy to support the strong social programs on which we rely, which are such an important part of our national identity. When the throne speech reasserted Canadian sovereignty, with the King on the throne in the Senate chamber a few days ago, it did so with a chorus of people in Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park who yearn for an alternative to American domination.
People are waking up to the fact that bridging these divides is quite simply what we must do to make ourselves free, that freedom comes from interconnection, not from retreat. The people who taught me this more than anything are the people who got involved in our campaign from all parties and from no party, people bridging divides. There were volunteers like Mark Badhwar, who last got involved in Brian Mulroney's leadership campaign and was awakened to the opportunity for Canada to diversify its economy. There were people like Brenda McLaughlin, the uber volunteer of our riding in the Runnymede area, a stalwart in her community, who came out early on so many mornings to speak to voters at subway stations across the riding. There were people like Soroush Zinsaz, a recently arrived dentist from Iran, who worked in his bakery. He spent his shifts not yet practising his profession but selling baked goods to the people in the Bloor West Village. There were people like Amy and her twin sons, Louis and Felix, in grade 7, who took their first big steps in civic engagement by talking to people of all ages and stages.
All of these volunteers were motivated to talk to their fellow Canadians, or in Soroush's case, the people he plans on having as fellow Canadians. All of them chose to connect across difference. The easier choice was to disconnect. The easier choice was to doomscroll, but they chose to connect, as did Canadians from coast to coast.
In this election, Canadians turned out in record numbers to assert Canadian sovereignty and Canadian freedom. Freedom is on the march, and we are here to champion it in this caucus, and I hope in every seat in this House, to protect it and uphold it. Let us get to work.
