Thank you, Speaker. Nice to see you in the chair this morning. Good morning, everybody.

More than usual, my body may be here in the Legislature, but my heart is back home. And the reason my heart is back home in Ottawa is linked to this tie I am wearing today. This week is Capital Pride in Ottawa, and Capital Pride is the moment where our city celebrates our gender diversity.

It’s a week where a talented crew, led by the executive director of Capital Pride Ottawa, Toby Whitfield, puts on event after event to mention that our city is open and inclusive to everyone, including, within minutes of this speech, there is going to be Family Drag Storytime, led by some of our city’s best and most talented drag queens, to welcome gender-diverse kids and their families in the story. There’s going to be Café au Gay tonight at Happy Goat Coffee at 35 Laurel Street. There will be a Capital Pride pageant for which people can buy tickets this Friday. There is going to be an amazing Capital Pride Parade this Sunday, starting at 1 p.m., marching through our downtown core.

I invite all the members of this House to visit our city and join us. Join your political party, join your faith community, join your community organization. For the first time in two years, let’s march and celebrate Capital Pride, and let’s also salute the donation target this year, Capital Rainbow Refuge, which welcomes gender-diverse people from all over the world to our community so they can be their fullest self.

Happy Pride, capital Ottawa. Let’s welcome each other to this great city. Bye for now.