Itabashi, Japan Mayor & Official Delegation Visiting Burlington as part of Ongoing 35-Year Twinning Tradition
Over this long weekend (June 29-July 2), the City of Burlington will be hosting Itabashi Mayor Takeshi Sakamoto and the Official Delegation from Itabashi in celebration of the 35th anniversary of our twinning relationship! We're very excited to also be hosting them during our Canada Day celebrations on July 1!
The two pillars of a twinning relationship are friendship and the sharing of cultures — it is meant to promote and foster a mutual and international understanding between our two cities and encourage the involvement of our citizens to experience each other’s cultures, as well as promote global peace.
These trips are part of our dual exchange of our twinning relationship and occur every five years (once per Council term) where both of our cities send reciprocal official delegations. The last time this occurred was in 2019. I'm looking forward to joining the Official Delegation from the City of Burlington -- that includes members of the Mundialization Committee and Council Liaison to the Committee, Councillor Rory Nisan -- in October 2024. You can read more about our trip in October 2019 here.
The trips are organized by the amazing volunteers of the Mundialization Committee. The City of Burlington's Mundialization Committee encourages citizen connections as a way of fostering world peace and global understanding. Through the committee, the City has signed twinning agreements with two global cities: Itabashi, Japan and Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.
Over the past 35 years, our relationship with Itabashi has only grown stronger, particularly through our official and citizen delegations, student art exchanges, and active pen-pal exchanges between high school students that have been ongoing since 2017. I know both of our cities have truly treasured this strong friendship.
Burlington is dedicated to the United Nations (UN) philosophy of peaceful co-operation and understanding of different cultures. One of the Mundialization Committee’s objectives is to celebrate the importance and achievements of the UN and its mandate. The committee reports to Council through the Committee of the Whole and is dedicated to making the City of Burlington a world community. Their mandate is to promote the City of Burlington as a world community and encourage community understanding of global cultural issues by:
Maintaining our twin city relationships under the agreements;
Promoting activities that celebrate our similarities and respect our differences;
Organizing a celebration of the United Nations Day each year around October 24;
Providing advice and assistance on twin city relationships to Burlington City Council;
Developing achievable annual action plans with the help of City staff; and
Presenting an annual report to Council with the help of City staff.
These twinning relationships help us discover how much in common our municipalities have with each other -- including issues around traffic and transit, development, a growing aging population, housing affordability, and emergency management planning for climate change, to name a few. It's also a chance to share ideas with each other on how each of our cities deals with those issues.
Be sure to check back to this post for a summary of the trip taking place from June 29-July 1.
I want to thank all the City of Burlington staff and Mundialization Committee members who helped ensure the trip and the planned events went smoothly, including (from City of Burlington) Manager of Committee Services and Deputy City Clerk Lisa Palermo and the entire Clerks Department, Commissioner of Community Services Jacqueline Johnson, and Social Media and Digital Specialist Jeevan Brar; and (from the Mundialization Committee) Chair Hassan Raza; Itabashi Sub-Committee Chair Marybeth Curtin; and members Rob Lyng, Ed Dorr, Leanne Cecil, and Chuck Morris.
OVERVIEW: Itabashi Delegation Visit Burlington
Saturday, June 29, 2024 — We were excited to welcome some special guests in Burlington today — Itabashi Mayor Takeshi Sakamoto and the Official Itabashi, Japan Delegation to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the twinning of our two cities! I joined our Mundialization Committee members, City staff and Councillors Rory Nisan (Council Liaison to Mundialization Committee), Kelvin Galbraith, Paul Sharman, Angelo Bentivegna and Shawna Stolte to officially welcome our guests to Burlington.
These visits are part of our dual exchange with our twin city Itabashi and occur every 5 years (once per Council term) where both of our cities send reciprocal official delegations. The last one took place in 2019.
We have an exciting two days planned for the Itabashi delegation!
Sunday, June 30, 2024 — What a wonderful Day 2 with Itabashi Mayor Takeshi Sakamoto and the Official Itabashi, Japan Delegation visiting Burlington!
Today, we had a Courtesy Call in Council Chambers, where we presented Burlington’s Official Gift to the Itabashi Delegation. We also planted a Sakura tree behind City Hall next to our Veteran Square, had a public art unveiling at Spencer Smith Park, and visited Crawford Lake, Backed by Bees, the Tansley Woods Recreation Centre and Enomoto Garden at Paletta Mansion.
We’re so glad to have the opportunity to show some of Burlington’s highlights to our guests and are looking forward to tomorrow’s festivities.
Monday, July 1, 2024 — We had a very special Day 3 with Itabashi Mayor Takeshi Sakamoto and the Official Itabashi, Japan Delegation who are visiting Burlington!
They got to experience how we celebrate our national holiday with Canada Day! We also had a tour of the Art Gallery of Burlington and Royal Botanical Gardens, got to play a game of lawn bowling at the Burlington Lawn Bowling Club, had a wonderful Canada Day BBQ at LaSalle Park, and experienced a Citizenship Ceremony celebrating new Canadians to our city!
We can’t believe the Itabashi Delegation’s time with us is almost up, but we have truly enjoyed showing our guests around the city and highlighting some of our favourite places and activities.
Tuesday, July 2, 2024 — Today, we said a fond farewell to our friends: Itabashi Mayor Takeshi Sakamoto and the Official Itabashi, Japan Delegation, whose visit to Burlington draws to a close.
We truly enjoyed our time spent together! I look forward to joining the Official Burlington Delegation that includes Mundialization Committee members and Council Liaison to that Committee Councillor Rory Nisan when we visit Itabashi, Japan in October 2024 to continue celebrating the 35th anniversary of the twinning of both of our cities.
