President DeCoo welcomed all to the meeting in this the 40 week of our 100^th year.  He read a message from PDG Lesley Barmania, Chair of the District Foundation Committee thanking us for the donations to the Rotary Foundation that have been made by seven of our newest members.

 

Jim Brown is happy and he and wife Lind were to have had some time recently in Mexico and that while there he was able to meet Canadian Rotarians from Ottawa and Labrador.

 

Lumi Mironescui is delighted that Oksana Tereshchenko, the Ukrainian refugee she has been helping is now here in Canada and was able to be with her at our meeting today.

 

Louise Gardiner continues to a very proud Rotarian as she hears about all of the great things we do.  She is happy that her daughter was also able to be in Mexico recently and that they got the opportunity to dog-sit a new puppy.  She was also happy to have hosted a club Dine-A-Round event on the weekend.

 

Shawky Fahel is very pleased to have been able to sponsor a local photographer who will be travelling to the Ukraine in May to take aerial photographs of what is happing there.  It is expected that he will be able to attend a future meeting to share some of his images.

 

Josh Bedard was pleased to relate some happy hockey news   His youngest son’s team, which he coaches, was able to all stay healthy and participate in a tournament in Hamilton on the weekend.  At the same time his oldest son won the Alliance Championship at their tournament.

 

Gary Parker was relieved to announce that he and Sue are recovering well from their recent bout of COVID.

Yes, very soon members will be able to purchase Rotary items and clothing proudly displaying our 100^th Anniversary Logo.  Stay tuned for more details.

 

Our weekly winner of Catch the Ace was Laurie W. who picked card #20, revealing the 4 of Spades. Laurie won the weekly prize of $210.

 

When you buy tickets you have a chance to win the weekly prize and if your card is the Ace of Spades you will also win the Progressive Prize currently of $9,999. The next weekly draw is on Thursday April 14th.

 

The deadline to get your tickets as always is Wednesday at Midnight.  Don't forget that you have to purchase a ticket the week of the draw to qualify for both the weekly and progressive jackpot!

 

 

 

The Rotary Leadership Institute is a great program for members to learn more about our great organization.  It consists of three parts – each a full day training session, which are being offered on May 7 here in Kitchener.  The $75 fee is free for new Rotarians for Part 1 (2 years or less) and is covered by the club for other members for Parts 1, 2 and 3.

Registration for Part 1 can be found here: rotary7080.org/event/

 

Our own Karen Redman, Regional Chair, will be giving the annual State of the Region address on April 29.  The live audience is by invitation only but the event will be live streamed.  Click here for more details - State of the Region

Our Guest Speaker today was member Mike Morrice, Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre.  He spoke about his early days as a novice MP.  Mike was introduced by Dave Smith and thanked by Chris Toal of the Grand River club.

 

MP Mike Morrice has spent his career bringing people together. Whether working with different levels of government or not for profit organizations, Mike has a proven record of introducing ambitious ideas along with finding the funds to pay for them. He is the founder of Sustainable Waterloo Region, co-creator of ClimateActionWR, and piloted Canada’s first Green Economy Hub. This later led to Green Economy Canada and eight Green Economy Hubs across the country, which have enabled hundreds of organizations to both lower their carbon footprint and increase their profitability. He also initiated evolv1, Canada’s first net-positive energy multi-tenant building, which an ambitious group of individuals later brought to fruition.

Mike fell in love with the spirit of Waterloo Region while completing a double degree in business and computer electronics at Wilfrid Laurier University. Today, Mike lives on block 2 of the Haldimand Tract, in the Cherry Park neighbourhood of Kitchener. He is an active community volunteer and serves on multiple local boards and committees, including Kitchener Housing, Women’s Crisis Services, and the KW Awesome Foundation, while also working as Wilfrid Laurier’s first Social Entrepreneur in Residence.Mike believes in using his platform to amplify the concerns of his community. This includes his commitment to science-based action on the climate crisis, to racial justice, to completing the country’s social safety net through programs like a Guaranteed Livable Income, and to electoral reform.

 

Mike is inspired by the great things people can accomplish when we genuinely listen to one another, look to find common ground, and prioritize future generations. In 2019, Mike was Kitchener Centre's Green Party candidate for Member of Parliament, increasing the Green vote from 3% to 26% - the strongest result of any Green candidate in Ontario, Quebec, and the Prairies. He ran again in 2021 winning the riding along with the title of Ontario’s first elected Green MP.

 

Mike was named Young Alumnus of the Year by Laurier (2011), Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the KW Chamber of Commerce (2012), given a Special Citation for Social Entrepreneurship by EY Canada (2018), and has been an Ashoka Fellow since 2012.

 

Mike shared four stories that help to illustrate his experiences as a new MP.

 

Although what is often displayed as a very combative environment by the media, particularly with times such as Question Period in the House of Commons, Mike has found a very pleasing level of cooperation among MPs with an overriding sense of working together to do what is best for Canadians.  He gave a specific example of an MP from a different party allowing Mike to use some of his presentation time in a committee meeting to express opposing views to his own.  Mike said that he often sees evidence of the Rotary motto of Service Above Self in the work of MPs working to serve and do what is best for Canadians

 

All MPs are in a position to serve their constituents regardless of party affiliation.  And again, Mike has found a great deal of cooperation among local MPs and has learned much from them.  He is finding that proving this support is of tremendous satisfaction and spoke about how emotional it can be with issues such as helping new immigrants work through the bureaucracy.

 

Mike spoke about the issue of the vote on the Emergencies Act and how, as a new MP he strove to fully understand the act and all of the related issues.  He was pleased that he was able to vote his conscience on the issue and do what he felt was best for the people in his riding.

 

Can one MP really make a difference?  Mike believes he or she can.  He spoke about the work he is doing with the Canadian Disabilities Benefits program.  This was tabled by the government last year and had a significant level of support, but was dropped when the election was called.  By doing a lot of leg work and research, working with interest groups, finding supportive MPs from all parties the issue is likely to be brought back before Parliament.

 

Mike welcomes questions and comments from all Canadians, his email is: mike.morrice.c1@parl.gc.ca

President Adrian reminded members that there is no meeting on Monday April 18th. The next event is the trail clean-up scheduled for Thursday April 21st.