Rideau Hall, Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

Let me greet you in your native Estonian: Tere Tulemast Kanadasse —welcome to Canada!

To you and your wife, Excellency, I say welcome back to the country you called home for a brief period. The experiences you had in this country, I hope, prepared you in some small way for your return to Estonia and for your current role as president. Canada is proud to have this special connection with a respected world leader, and Sharon and I are honoured to host you here during your State visit.

Estonia and Canada share so many commonalities. Flowing from our historical ties, our people have time and again found ways to partner, sharing not only our knowledge, but also our culture with each other.

It is these bonds that we celebrate today with your visit, and I have every confidence that these will be strengthened by the time you leave Canada.

I note with interest that you will be visiting Waterloo, a city with which I am quite familiar. Before becoming governor general, I was president of the University of Waterloo. We call that area Canada’s Technology Triangle.

The focus on technology in Waterloo will no doubt remind you of Estonia’s own innovations in this area. I hope that you will learn about our successes while you are here and that we will discover more ways in which to work together for the benefit of both our peoples.

That is, after all, the basis of many of our global relationships—collaboration and the sharing of knowledge. We look forward to speaking with you about how we can build on our relationship and what we can do to create more opportunities for our peoples.

Once again, welcome and welcome back to Canada!