Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar will join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Montreal’s Pride parade during a three-day visit that gets underway Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced today.
Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister is expected to become the first world leader to join Trudeau in Sunday’s parade, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The two young leaders met in Ireland in July, during Trudeau’s three-day stopover in Ireland on his way to the G20 leaders’ summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Trudeau says he and Varadkar plan to discuss issues related to diversity and inclusion and how both countries can benefit from the Canada-Europe Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which comes into effect as of Sept. 21.
“Ireland and Canada are close friends, and I look forward to meeting again with Taoiseach Varadkar in Montreal,” Trudeau said in a statement. “Our two countries enjoy strong family ties, common values, and a shared history. Now we are collaborating again to ensure that CETA creates good, well-paying middle class jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.”
The prime minister stressed the close ties between the two countries, saying more than 4.5 million Canadians claimed Irish ancestry in the 2011 census, making the Irish-Canadian community one of the largest ethnic groups in Canada.
In 2015, Canadian foreign direct investment in Ireland was $13.99 billion and Irish foreign direct investment in Canada was $6.28 billion, according to government statistics.
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.