ANDIn statements to journalists, upon his arrival at the hotel where he will be based in Montreal, the head of state declared that during this visit, he would also meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday in Toronto.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that on this occasion he intends to “reinforce the invitation given to him by the Portuguese Prime Minister to go to the Web Summit”, being a bodybuilder and defender of science, technology and of the future”.

“But, beyond all that, it is the Portuguese presence and the link with Portugal, in the past, in the present and looking towards the future, which naturally marks this coming to Canada, which I was waiting for so much. “, did he declare. declared.

The President of the Republic had at his side the Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, who accompanied him during this visit.

This trip to Canada – where, according to the 2021 census, around 450,000 people of Portuguese origin live – coincides with the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the first officially registered Portuguese emigrants.

“It was in 1953 that the first ship with a large number of Portuguese, mainly Azoreans, symbolically arrived in Halifax, but later Madeirans and mainlanders joined it, thus marking the Portuguese presence here,” he said. declared Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

According to the Head of State, Portuguese emigrants “have a very great influence in all sectors of Canadian life, including politics, the economy, society in general, and they have a very gregarious spirit, very strong “.

The President of the Republic mentioned that his visit to Canada was preceded by the visits of the Prime Minister, António Costa, in 2018, and the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, in 2022.

The delegation of the President of the Republic for this visit also includes the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, Paulo Cafôfo, and the deputies João Azevedo e Castro, of the PS, Francisco Pimentel, of the PSD, Diogo Pacheco de Amorim, of Chega, Rodrigo Saraiva, parliamentary leader of the Liberal Initiative, Bruno Dias, of the PCP, and José Soeiro, of the Left Bloc.

Read also: António Costa rejects the existence of “anger” against the President of the Republic