The President of the Republic spoke on Saturday evening to Portuguese emigrants and descendants of Portuguese people in Toronto, whom he told them they were “the pride of Portugal” for preserving the Portuguese identity for decades on Canadian soil.
“They showed who we are: obviously we are fado, we are cod, we are caldo verde, we are Portuguese stew, we are vira, corridinho and fandango. We are all this, we have a soul. We are Cristiano Ronaldo,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on the penultimate day of his official visit to Canada, dedicated to Portuguese expatriate communities.
The words prompted applause and some chants imitating Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal celebration from an audience of about 400 people, according to the organization, echoed throughout the huge hall of the Labor International Union of North America (LIUNA) in Toronto.