My riding of Thornhill is filled with hard-working, innovative self-starters. I talked about them a bit in my maiden speech yesterday. And on the topic of hard work, I want to pay special tribute to the many hard-working people with small businesses within Thornhill who came here with very little and created something from nothing.

With that being said, I would like to show praise to a local business in our riding known as Yosef Mokir Shabbos, owned by a man named Moshe Wolfson, whose journey originates in Israel. He came to Canada not so long ago in hopes of a better life for himself and his family. This new takeout business offers a huge selection of fish and prepared food, with more than 40 types of salads, dips and meals that will help our busy families put food on the table. And I forgot to mention, Mr. Speaker: The food is completely kosher—very delicious.

The name of his storefront, Yosef Mokir Shabbos, comes from Jewish folklore. The story presents itself with a poor man who buys a fish, only to discover a diamond within that fish. He uses this to feed his family and provide for a future. This is exactly what Moshe did, a newcomer in 2017 with little to nothing. Then he opened a takeout restaurant amid the pandemic, employed individuals and serviced our community, leading him to open a second store just a few weeks ago. He continues to be an inspiration not only for myself, but the rest of the innovative and hard-working community that resides in Thornhill—just one Thornhill success story depicting solid determination and starting from something that was nothing, and then growing into something more and then something more.

I will continue to work hard for the people of my community, Mr. Speaker, cutting red tape for businesses and building for a stronger Thornhill and Ontario.

Yes, I will. The one thing that I love about the farmers’ market is the way it has evolved. The fact of the matter is, it has become something completely different, very much like our community. It began as a local farmers’ market, and it still remains a farmers’ market, but all of the flavours and the tastes of our neighbourhood are also there. You can go there and pick up sushi. You can go there and pick up pasta. You can go there and literally absorb a multitude of different ethnicities, and I really enjoy that.

I think that bringing our kids to these places allows them to really understand where food comes from. That’s why I appreciate everything that you’ve done over the course of 20-odd—how many years have you been involved in this? Countless years—

Thank you for the question.

The one thing I told my campaign manager when he arrived in Thornhill, who advised that he lived on Twizzlers and beef jerky, was that he was going to eat very well when he came to Thornhill.

So it has to do with food—it’s actually all about food. If you sit at a dinner table in Thornhill, there might be some discussions on the day about politics, but it will very quickly move to food, and that’s an assumed fact.

I would say the best bagel in Thornhill is a huge argument, and that is iconic—and I will not get into that argument because that would be very troublesome.

Interjection.

I personally prefer Montreal chewy bagels; my husband prefers a more doughy kind. We’ll leave it at that. He’s in the chamber.

I think the commonality is something that I touched upon. It’s building something from nothing, and we do a lot of that in Thornhill.

Aside from that issue, I think I’d have to talk about the welcoming nature of our people. I know everyone has wonderful ridings and everything is fantastic in everyone’s riding—and I feel no different. The truth of the matter is, when I first started my role in politics I was welcomed by so many people. One example of that is FCAV, the Vaughan Filipino association. Erlinda, who runs that association, opened her heart to me very warmly. I walked into her gym to give a speech, and they still had a Zumba class going. I immediately pulled off my shoes, my high heels, and I went into the Zumba class, because that’s what you do—because it’s a welcoming, inviting environment. Just the friendliness of it is kind of plastered across Thornhill, not just in that one location. So that’s probably the best example of what I could set out.

Thank you for the question.

Everything is within walking distance of a bagel place. I think it’s very safe to say that whether it’s Royal Orchard or Steeles, you will always have an opportunity to find a pretty decent bagel place; if not, it will be there. They will build it, and they will come.

I want to thank the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London for sharing his story. I also want to thank him for feeding Ontario, because that’s such an important role. So many of us forget where the items we put into our mouth come from. I actually want to applaud you for doing that and being part of that process.

My friend across the way asked a similar question, but could you further explain your thoughts respecting food production in Ontario? Particularly, how can we ensure that we can continue to keep up with this, with respect to our growing population, and make sure that everyone is fed?