| EVENTS:
TRUE COLOURS MULTICULTURAL BAZAAR
Saturday,
June 13
I:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Pickering
Village United Church
300 Church
St., North, Ajax
FREE ADMISSION
( But an item for the Food Bank
would be greatly appreciated)
FREE PARKING
Be
sure to bring your friends and family to our free outdoor Multicultural
Bazaar. Visit the many vendors’ stalls, enjoy a variety of delicious
foods, learn about other cultures at our country displays and
watch the kiddies have fun at the fish pond, face painting station,
and games field. Lots of prizes for the children and a raffle
for the adults. Circle the date on your calendar and join us
for a fun-filled afternoon. Free parking at Pickering H.S.
Michael Ignatieff
Book Launch
Our leader,
Michael Ignatieff, launched his new book, True Patriot Love, in an engaging conversation
with Seamus O’Reagan at
Convocation Hall on May 8. Although the exchange was mainly
non-political what emerged for this listener was
a strong sense of the deep love Michael feels for this country
and his hopeful vision of the future.
The book is a well written account of the major influence on Canadian history played by 3 generations
of his mother’s ancestors. The
final chapter concerns Michael himself and reveals much about
his character and aspirations.
This is a recommended read for anyone who wants to know more about the
man who may well be our next Prime Minister.
THANK YOU TO:
Membership
Drive Team Captains - Nadia Bedok (Blitz Organizer), Tom Davis, Humera Khan, Lynda McCarthy,
Kamini Sahadeo, Fahim Sharaf, and Chris Sharpe for leading their teams. Very special thanks to our wonderful
“Typhoon” Mary who
single-handedly raised nearly 60 of our new memberships. Thanks
as well to the many other volunteers who dedicated their time
and energy to this task. Because of our united efforts we have
well surpassed the 400 mark and can be assured that our amazing
M.P., Mark Holland, will continue to be our candidate in any
future election.
Humera Khan for her enthusiastic leadership of the True Colours
Committee. Humera’s delight in organizing this event is contagious
and she and the members of her team, Farah
Mohammed, Mohammed Awal, Fatim Sharaf, Shaheen Butt, Lynda McCarthy, Kamini Sahadeo
and Karem Allen, are most hopeful that the
careful organization of this exciting event will translate into
a great success next Saturday. (Karem
still needs bakers to make cupcakes. Contact Karem)
Havana Nights Ticket Buyers who attended the fundraising dinner for Mark. I believe
we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner, shared a pleasant evening
with Mark and Cindy, and at the same time raised the largest
amount of money since the new rules for campaign contributions came in. Special thanks to Nadia Bedok and Lynda McCarthy for organizing this event and to Chris Sharpe who assisted at door.
Tom Davis for taking the initiative on organizing assistance
to St. Paul on the Hill Food Bank and to all those who are willing
to contribute their time and effort to this worthy cause.
Andriea Florea for providing the snacks at the last Association Meeting. |
MARK’S VIEWS
I
want to extend my congratulations to Dave Johnson on being re-elected
as our riding President for Ajax-Pickering. Dave has done
a great job in the post and I have no doubt he will continue
to serve us all well. I also want to congratulate Lynda
McCarthy and Tom Quigley for running spirited campaigns that
did them and our association proud. The AGM and the elections
were a healthy and important event that will add many new ideas
and initiatives that need to be carried forward. At our
first association meeting, I look forward to discussing how
we can integrate many of the great thoughts and proposals that
came from the process.
In Ottawa,
as the House heads for adjournment for the summer, Conservative
mismanagement is becoming more and more evident. After
having denied there was a deficit at all, then saying it was
$34 billion - we now learn that this fiscal year alone it will
soar to a record setting $50 billion dollars. In fact,
projections from TD Bank indicate that over the next five years
the national debt will balloon by more than $170 billion – erasing
all the debt that Liberal governments were able to pay down.
Add to this mismanagement of isotopes used for cancer and heart
screening, bungling of E.I. reforms and forgotten secret documents
and it is clear that the Conservative government is unravelling.
It is a challenging time and we need to demonstrate every day
that we have the team and the competence to deliver the good
governance the Conservatives cannot.
I look
forward to seeing everyone at the True Colours Event, the Youth
Action Forum and many of the other events we have planned in
the coming weeks and over the summer.
President’s Message
May
28th brought us another successful Annual General Meeting and
new members of the executive. I think it a great privilege to
continue as your president and thank everyone for their continued
support of the Ajax Pickering Federal Liberal Association. A
complete list of our new executive and directors will be published
on our website at www.apfla.ca.
Several
new members have joined the APFLA team and are ready to get
to the tasks at hand to continue to develop your association.
A new position this time around is that of Vice President Fundraising.
During the Liberal Party biennial convention a motion was passed
that each riding association across Canada
would make changes to their constitution to include this position
on their executive. A long time Liberal and volunteer of our
association, Mr. Randy Low, has agreed to take the position.
In future editions of our newsletter more information about
Randy and his efforts will be forthcoming.
During
the Liberal Convention I had the opportunity to meet with our
new Liberal Party president, Mr. Alfred Apps. During our conversations
I found him to be a well informed, intelligent and caring person.
His vision of bringing the Liberal Party in to the 21st
century by using advanced technology, improved fundraising skills
as well as ideas to bring Liberals across the country together
was impressive and inspiring. I look forward to his success
and I will report to you from time to time on his progress.
Plans
are under way for the APFLA to reach out in to the community.
This coming weekend I was happy to participate with our volunteers
to assist the local food bank with their collections at the
Pickering RibFest. Please let us know
if you would like to make a donation of a non perishable food
item and we will be sure to get it to them.
I
encourage you to send me your thoughts and feedback. It is important
to me that you let me know what you would like to see the riding
association doing on your behalf. Reaching me is as easy as
sending me an email to president@apfla.ca. Thank you.
Dave Johnson
President – Ajax Pickering Federal
Liberal Association
AGM ELECTION
RESULTS
The three candidates
for the position of President, Dave Johnson, Lynda McCarthy and Tom Quiqley drew the largest attendance at any
AGM in recent years and provided voters with some real choice
– a very healthy exercise in the democratic process. All other
positions were acclaimed.
The executive for
the coming year are:
President-
Dave Johnson
Treasurer
– Sylvain Trepanier
Vice-President
– Nadia Bedok
2nd
V. P. – Farah Mohammed
General
Secretary- Andriea Florea
Membership
Sec.- Humera Khan
V.P.
Policy – Tom Davis
Fundraising
Chair- Randy Low
I know we will do
everything we can to support these hardworking members of our
Association.
ST. PAUL’S
ON THE HILL
COMMUNITY
OUTREACH
As some of
you may have heard one of the initiatives of the APFLA is to
be more in involved in community outreach. In this time
of economic recession some in our community are very much
in need. As such, we are finding ways in which
we can help the Pickering (St. Paul's on the Hill) Food Bank.
One of the most obvious ways is donating food. The most needed items are:
Pasta Sauce, Tuna, Canned Fruit, Lunch Snacks
Canned Meats, Dry Soup Noodles, Tea and Coffee
Canned Stew and Chilli, Cereal, Crackers, Flour & Sugar
While the food bank has enough volunteers actually
working there, they can use assistance in terms of fundraising,
donations (toys at Christmas) and drivers (collecting food that
is donated at grocery stores every week). (I will be the
regular weekly driver for a grocery store at Finch and Dixie)
There has been discussion by some of our APFLA members
of setting up a community garden. Perhaps a small plot
of land could be used to produce fruit and vegetables to be
donated to the food bank.
The Food Bank can also use a supply of boxes (new), the size and
sturdiness of a beer case. If anyone has any
contacts with suppliers, please keep this in mind.
Please let me know if you are interested
in providing any assistance or if you have ideas as to
what we can do collectively as an association.
Tom Davis thomas.davis@rogers.com
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