Earlier this month, I was proud to host a very special event at Le Tréport in Mississauga to recognize and honour alumni from the Canadian national soccer team, including Dwayne De Rosario, a forward for the Mississauga MetroStars, and the Canadian national team’s all-time leading scorer, with 22 goals in 81 games from 1998 to 2015, and Carrie Serwetnyk from Mississauga, who was the first woman named to the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame. The leadership of these players helped build the game of soccer across Canada. The recent success of our national teams, from the women’s gold medal at the 2020 Olympics, to the men’s team finishing first in CONCACAF, is because of the foundation these players built, although the result in Qatar isn’t what we were hoping for.

I want to take a moment to thank special guests and good friends, including Dr. Nick Bontis, president of the Canadian Soccer Association; Bill Manning, president of Toronto FC; and Bob Iarusci, a former captain of the Canadian national team, who served as our MC that night.

Lastly, I want to thank our outreach director, Joanna Maio, who worked for months to organize this event—the first of its kind—together with our friend, Lucky Raso. We look forward to celebrate together at our next soccer alumni event, and I welcome the soccer world to Ontario as we host FIFA men’s World Cup matches for the first time in 2026.