Young Citizens Toast Transcript

Ladies and gentleman, good evening. My name is Basel Al Rashdan, I am in grade 8, and I go to Queen Charlotte Intermediate School in Canada’s greatest province, Prince Edward Island!

Today, I would like to talk about John Tuzo Wilson, an internationally respected expert on glaciers, ocean basins and the structure of Earth’s continents.

One of his greatest discoveries were plate tectonics. He was the first person to introduce air photos in geological mapping, and he was responsible for the first glacial map for Canada!

John inspires me because he was a really successful person that tried his best to inform us about Canada’s geology!

We Canadians are awesome people who recognize education as key to making Canada the best country it can be.

If we start to learn geology of the second largest country in the world, then we would understand a lot of things about Canada before it is too late!

At the end, we have to thank John for all his hard work that now helps us understand many things about this land we all love!

Good evening. My name is Joshua Concepcion and I am a Grade 7 student at Holy Ghost school in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

I would like to give a toast to Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone, photophone, metal detector, etc.

More people should know about this person because he is a great Canadian inventor who made fantastic inventions to make the world easier.

One of his famous inventions, the telephone, is an amazing invention which helped people communicate from far distances instead of meeting up in person.

The telephone made business easier and helped friends and families connect from all around the world. It sparked a great idea of communication and it helped connect people all around the world.

Without communication, we may not understand each other, learn and understand about history. It is crucial for achieving your goals.

So please raise your glasses and join us in a toast to Canada’s inventors.

Ladies and gentlemen, good evening everyone. My name is Rémi Ouellette and I am an eighth grade student at Père Edgar T.-LeBlanc de Grand-Barachois in New Brunswick. 

I would like to propose a toast to her Excellency the Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada. 

More people should know this person because not only is she an astronaut who has participated in two spaceflights, but she is also the first Canadian to board the space station.

An accomplished scientist, she continues to inspire the youth to realize their dreams. 

Good evening everyone. My name is Shuyou Wen and I am a grade four student at General Gordon Elementary in Vancouver, British Columbia.

I would like to give a toast to Canada’s most well-known environmentalist, and one of the most vocal environmentalists, David Suzuki. David Suzuki inspires me for a number of reasons, but right now I’m going to tell you the two most important reasons.

First, David Suzuki does not let other people affect his points of views. Second, related to my heritage fair project, he believes the world is inter-connected.

Please raise your glass for a toast to Canada’s innovators.

Good evening everyone. My name is Kianna Lam and I am a grade seven student at Westmount Charter School in Calgary, Alberta, the best province in Canada.

I’d like to give a toast to Maude Abbott, a trailblazer in the field of medicine. At a time when women were discouraged from being doctors, Maude went on to become an internationally respected pathologist and a world expert on heart disease.

She helped pave the way, so that many more women could enter the field of medicine, and for that, I think she deserves recognition. 

Good evening. My name is Oscar Cormier and I am a grade 7 student at King Edward Public School in Windsor, Ontario, the second best province in Canada. Second only to PEI, where I’m originally from.

I would like to recognize Clifton Stewart, agent with British Security Coordination during WWII, and my great-grandfather.

At Camp X, outside Oshawa Ontario, Cliff developed an early protocomputer: the Rockex. This encrypting/decrypting machine was used for cracking codes and encoding Allied messages, and was crucial to the Allied war effort.

Alan Turing and his work at Bletchley is well known but the Canadian encryption contribution has slipped into history. So tonight, let us remember it.

And let us remember Clifton Stewart, the spy from PEI, my great-grandfather.

Please raise your glasses and join us in a toast to Canada’s innovators.