Up-coming Events for 2017

Celebrating Canada's 150th Birthday with over 100 years of Macedonian Immigration


  1. Annual General Membership meeting: Sunday April 23rd, 2017 @ the CMP
  2. Lecture: Celebrating Canada's 150th - A Canadian - Macedonian Heritage Story with Edith George   May 7, 2017 at the East York Civic Centre at 2pm-4:30pm


  1. Book Launch: Danny the Barber - Proud to Call Canada My Home. The life of well-known Cambridge businessman Doné Katsarov is chronicled in Danny the Barber – Proud to Call Canada My Home. A launch celebration for the self-published title, written by Shelley Byers, will be held on a date to be announced soon.

  2. Canadian Macedonian Poetry - Celebrating Canada's 150

      Macedonian Immigrant by Edward Spiro Thomas

      Canada you are indeed a land and nation of immigrants
      Many people heard you call and they came.
      Macedonians left their beloved homeland
      Your hopes and opportunities to claim.
      You invited them; come Aegean, come Pirin, come Vardar
      Come you resilient and strong peoples.
      Leave Macedonia, as children will someday leave the home.
      Come have families, build homes, build businesses, build churches with their steeples.
      You counseled them, embrace me and i will embrace you.
      Nothing will be given to you, nothing here is free
      Macedonians are not strangers to hard times or hard work.
      Things will go well here; persist; you will see.
      You persuade them; give me your youth, your vigour, your muscle, your sweat.
      Give me your hopes and sreams, your plans, your brain.
      Establishing a foothold in this new country will be hard.
      Remember immigrant, it's your children who will reap and gain.
      And work they did; daytime, nighttime, fulltime, part-time, overtime.
      In abattoirs, factories, odd jobs, restaurants, stores, plants and mills.
      No work was too hard for a Macedonian, nor beneath them, name it they did it!
      Labourers at first, they soon left that behind, these Macedonians of intelligence and will.
      They rubbed shoulders with a great mixture of nationalities in Canada.
      Learned the Language of the land; collectively, ethically they won themselves a place.
      Their honest, God fearing, hard working character, proves them second to none.
      In business, the trades, arts and academics, they bring honour to thier Macedonian race.
      And when the children of Macedonian immigrants
      Stand at their parents graves, as one day they must,
      They know their Canadian birth right has been secured.
      For their parents bones, will become part of Canadian dust.

      DESTINATION, TORONTO by Patsy Sider

      I close my eyes
      Memories are overflowing
      Like bubbles of champagne
      Macedonia is my birthplace
      I see the yard of my home and the vine canopies
      I reach for the hanging grapes
      The red and white sweet grapes are melting in my mouth
      I admire the majestic mountains and the voices of the singing birds
      One day my father says to us
      "We will leave this place
      We will go to Canada, which is a dream place"
      In 1962, we depart for Canada
      The four of us, my little sister, my mama and papa
      From Piraeus we are aboard on a luxurious boat from Holland
      It is called Homerique
      Thirteen days in the ship
      The eye sees only sky and sea
      Our cabin is located in the lowest level of the boat
      The economy class
      From the window of our cabin I am able to see
      The dark color, the other side of the sea
      The French Cuisine
      Smells heavenly
      This is a different cooking
      It is much tastier than the homeland cooking.
      At the dinning room the waiter is dressed
      In white shirt, black bow tie, white jacket
      Black pants and white gloves
      He is handsome, polite, kind
      And he teaches us in which hand to hold the fork and the knife
      This is a luxurious way of living
      My background is just a tiny city
      I never benn on a cruise before
      This boat will take me faraway from my home
      At Pier 21 in Halifax, a Representative
      Of the travel Agency
      Welcome us with a written sign and the destination
      And our minds are ready for imagination
      With few cents we purchase
      A loaf of French bread
      The French bread is so yummy
      We cannot fulfill our tummies
      An hour later we are aboard on a commercial train
      It twists as a snake, for long, long hours
      It leaves behind a cloud of black smoke
      A beautiful panorama, of a snow-white blanket is spread
      Our stomachs have desire fro French bread
      In Montreal we change to another train
      And we notice the freezing rain
      This locomotive is clean
      I am eager to see everything
      From Montreal to Toronto is anoither thing
      I could not see a thing
      I feel exhausted and I sleep
      Into a deep sleep and I sleep
      The next morning with the dawn
      I yawn
      This is Toronto, the downtown station
      And time for realization
      Tall buildings, bright lights
      At nights
      Toronto is a special City, an exception
      I have a good impression
      Toronto is the city of opportunity
      Toronto is the land of prosperity
      Toronto is a sweet city
      In Toronto I raise family
      Toronto is my New World
      In Toronto I have gracefully grown
      Toronto sits up high
      I love the First Day of July
      Destination, Toronto is like a dream come true.