Thank you. It is. It absolutely is.

I remember, as a kid, going there in the 1970s, and it was this wonderful place. My dad took us, and we went to this water park and swung on some ropes. I’m excited for the future and for the next generation to see this great place and enjoy it as we did as kids.

And it’s not just about Toronto; that’s about everywhere. That’s not just about the people who live and breathe in Toronto; that’s about people who live in Windsor, people who live in the States—people who live all around the world can come to this beautiful province and see what we have to offer. And that’s what advertising is all about. Let’s see what we have in Ontario. It is an amazing province.

And we are investing. What are we investing in?

We’re investing in housing. We hear about that every day—the money we’re investing in housing. We are building houses in our province.

We are investing in our hospitals. In my riding alone, the Queensway health care centre is building a new nine-storey patient tower. And at St. Joseph’s hospital, we’re also building.

Do you know what? It is an amazing time to be living in Ontario. I am extremely excited.

Schools: We are rebuilding schools. In my riding alone, we are rebuilding four schools. Thank you to the Minister of Education. And in September of this year, we’re going to have two brand new schools open—Holy Angels and St. Leo—which are going to be first-class, all with child care spaces for those parents, so it makes an easy drop-off when you have to drop off two little ones versus driving around town. So I thank the minister for those investments. I can’t wait to get shovels in the ground for our Bishop Allen school. It’s going to be a high school in our riding for 1,400 students. Those kids at Bishop Allen certainly deserve a new school, so we’re very excited.

We have investments in our schools, our universities, our colleges.

We are creating economic growth, jobs, as I mentioned—700,000 jobs. We need to be promoting those. We want people to come to Ontario to live. If they don’t know Ontario is a much better place than it was when the Liberals were in power, how are they going to come here? So we need to advertise to let people know that we are building our province. We have the best province, and why would we not share that with the world?

I had the opportunity to drive this weekend. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend, and I was driving east along the 401, and then I drove west along the 401. While I was driving, I heard some of the ads on the radio—and I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to take away from my colleague from Niagara West. It talked about taking the GO to Niagara. I never thought about taking the GO to Niagara. I have some American cousins coming up for Easter weekend, and I was trying to figure out, how do I go to work and how do I let them enjoy—because they want to go down to Niagara Falls. Well, now I can tell them they can take the GO, thanks to the government ads. So this was good news. And it’s always good to hear the great things that we’re building.

And when you’re stuck in traffic, isn’t it nice to know that the government of Ontario has our back and we are going to be building more roads so we can actually get from A to B even quicker? I can’t say that about this morning—the one lane is cut off from the Gardiner, so I was a little bit later than I had hoped this morning. But investments in the Gardiner and the DVP, investments in the city of Toronto will help eventually get that traffic moving. I’m a driver. I like to drive my car, and I know many people here do like to drive their cars. We need solid roads to drive on.

I thank the government for investing—and I appreciate hearing that we are investing in our communities, not just here in Toronto but all across the province.

Every year, I always take a drive to Thunder Bay, which is where my family resides. We like to go to camp—we call it camp—up north. There is a beautiful drive to Thunder Bay. If you haven’t taken that drive, I really highly recommend that road. You just have to make sure that there isn’t a flood across Wawa—I’ve been stuck there a couple of times and had to take Sultan road. It’s a great drive, and it’s beautiful scenery.

We want people to come to our province and see these beautiful sights.

Northern Ontario is such a beautiful place to go and drive, especially in the summer. I’m not sure about the winter—I’m not a big fan of winter driving—but in the summertime, it’s such a great place to go and visit.

I highly recommend for all those viewing around the world, come to northern Ontario, come to Toronto. We have great things to offer.

Something else we’ve been talking about is One Fare. I had a little interview with one of my students from Humber College. Our college students are thrilled with One Fare. It’s going to save them money. And that’s for everybody. If you do come to Toronto and you don’t have a car, you can hop on a GO bus, you can hop on transit and go around the GTA with one fare. Our government is saving not just Ontarians but other people from around the world who visit us can also save money with One Fare.

Congratulations to the government on the One Fare program. It is amazing for students, and it will be amazing for tourists so they can get around this community.

I want to highlight a couple of other things that I love about my city.

I already talked about Ontario Place because I’m extremely excited about the future for Ontario Place.

Do you know what? You can take the GO downtown. I don’t know if anybody here is a Raptors fan. I know we had the number one fan—the super fan—here on Thursday. You can go to a Blue Jays game, taking the GO train. You can enjoy our diners—places for lunch and dinner. You can go see the Leafs. Hopefully, when you go see the Leafs, they are winning—often they are not, but we certainly always love our Leafs. It’s something certainly to see in Toronto—making a stop at the art gallery and see KAWS that’s there right now, and the CN Tower, the Rogers Centre, Casa Loma.

What about Casa Loma? I don’t know if anyone has ever seen Casa Loma. It’s a great old building, a nice castle, and you can grab a snack there.

Advertising our cities is something that’s important—not just about places to go, but events and festivals such as the Pride parade. Let’s advertise. Let’s get people from all around the world. They come here for the Pride parade and celebrate our diversity and our culture. We’re very proud. I’m a very proud Torontonian. I go to the Pride parade every year, and I just think it’s an amazing opportunity for all.

We also have Caribana coming up. I know they showcased an event here at the Legislature not too long ago so we could see a little bit about what that’s going to be about this year. We certainly want people from all around the world to come and celebrate Caribana the week of August 1 to 5.

What else do we have here? We’ve got tons of multicultural events.

Come on down to Toronto if you love to eat.

We have Greektown. We have Chinatown. We have Little India. We have the Latin and Spanish community.

Madam Speaker, we have so much to see and do here in Ontario. I am so proud of living in this province.

I was with the Premier on Friday. I heard him talk about this province, and I left there with a smile on my face, saying, “I am so proud to live in this province, with a government that cares—investing in health care, investing in our schools, investing in our students, investing in people. We are making a difference.”

Because I live in the riding of the largest food terminal—I’m running out of time—and I know the agriculture minister is here, I have one last thing to say: Good things grow in Ontario.