Ontario premier says she'll lead trade mission to Israel

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne told an appreciative audience of more than 700 people at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s annual Words & Deeds Leadership Award Dinner that she’ll be leading a trade mission to Israel next spring.

“Many of you have asked me this question so many times and I haven’t been able to give a concrete answer,” she said. “But I’m happy to tell you I will lead this mission and will be joined by a delegation of business[people]. We’ll meet with leaders from business and government and will deepen our partnership and find areas of further collaboration between Ontario and Israel,” Wynne said.

Wynne was the recipient of this year’s national Words & Deeds Leadership Award.

During her keynote address at the June 22 gala, held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, she said Ontario and Israel will each invest $3 million in partnerships and collaboration to promote trade and business between them.

Shimon Fogel, CEO of CIJA, told The CJN that the organization chose to honour Wynne because, in a general sense, she’s introduced “a new tone and approach to doing politics and public policy” insofar as she’s very quickly established relationships with colleagues at all levels of government and has shown “a propensity to engage in serious public policy issues without the kind of acrimony usually attached to these things.”

For the Jewish community specifically, he said Wynne has “shown sensitivity on a number of files, not least of which is the commitment she’s expressed to Ontario-Israel relations.”



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