As I go across the country and privately visit women’s shelters and counselling centres, I am appalled that the most vulnerable people in our society are still women.

When you get on the boat that’s saving you, don’t pull up the ladder behind you.

The Clarkson Cup is something that has evolved in the most wonderful and meaningful way,

This is a land of soul, this is a land of commitment, and this is our place, ... Lets never forget that.

This has made me feel even a greater part of your family.

The initiative, the love and understanding that I have seen in all of you over the past six years are the best reasons for hope, not only for Canadians, but for all human beings,

I have felt the warmth of your society, the welcome given to anyone who comes to be with you, to share and to understand,

I'm not turning my back on anything, I'm just leaving Ottawa,

It reflects an intense personal, as well as a national, gratitude for what Ukrainian Canadians have done for freedom in the country of origin of their ancestors and the example they helped set for the world,

A society like Canada's, with its four centuries of give-and-take, compromise and acceptance, wrong-doing and redress, is basically a forgiving society.