Ambassador Ishikawa’s Official Visit to Alberta
Ambassador Ishikawa made an official visit to Alberta from November 30 to December 4, the first province he has visited since being assigned to Canada as Ambassador of Japan. During his trip, he visited Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta, and made courtesy calls to various dignitaries including His Honour Donald Ethell, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, the Honourable Edward Stelmach, Premier of Alberta, the Honourable Ken Kowalski, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Ms. Iris Evans, Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr. Rob Renner, Minister of the Environment, Ms. Cindy Ady, Minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation, Mr. Lindsay Blackett, Minister of Culture and Community Spirit, Ms. Diana McQueen, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Energy, and Mr. Broyce Jacobs, Parliamentary Assistant for Agriculture and Rural Development.
During his trip, he also visited Calgary, Alberta’s economic capital.
He met with members of the Japanese Community Association at Japanese Centres in both Edmonton and Calgary as well as visited the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, Canadian companies, Calgary City Hall, and spoke with Japanese nationals who are assigned to Alberta from Japanese companies.
During his various meetings, Ambassador Ishikawa stated that relations between Alberta and Japan are very important in terms of human interaction and also in terms of energy, food, and tourism. He stressed the importance of achieving a win-win relationship. His counterpart also expressed Alberta’s desire to further strengthen ties with Japan.
Ambassador Ishikawa was very impressed with the fact that the Japanese Community Associations in both Edmonton and Calgary have been holding various activities in order to promote Japanese culture to local people.
Ambassador Ishikawa had an interview with the Calgary Herald which appeared in the December 4 edition.
He met with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and discussed their common beliefs about the importance of innovation and multiculturalism.
Ambassador Ishikawa paid a visit to the Prince Takamado Japan Centre for Teaching and Research at the University of Alberta. He heard about the enormous contribution that the Prince Takamado Japan Canada Memorial Fund has made on cultural exchanges between Japan and Canada. At a meeting with Dr. Elizabeth Cannon, President of the University of Calgary, Ambassador Ishikawa emphasized the importance of further strengthening academic exchange between Japan and Canada.
Through this first official visit to Alberta, a province rich in oil and natural resources as well as advanced in agriculture, Ambassador Ishikawa felt Alberta’s strong enthusiasm for trying to develop relations with other countries including Japan and was reminded of the truth of the saying, "A picture's worth a thousand words." It is without saying that the warmth of the people of Alberta is at the centre of his souvenirs of the trip. |
