Epoch Times Staff Jan 3, 2009

MPP Lisa MacLeod. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

OTTAWA--"I waited a year for this," the Honorable Lisa MacLeod, MPP for Nepean-Carleton, said after watching the Divine Performing Arts 2009 World Tour performance at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

"I'm very happy to be here, and I'll be back next year," said MacLeod, who is among the youngest Canadian politicians. She was first voted into the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in March 2006 at the age of 31.

MacLeod said she wanted to take her daughter, who attended a ballet camp this past summer, to the show this year.

"I spent the first part of this performance admiring the performance, but also looking at the complete wonderment in my 3 year-old's eyes as she watched the performance. She was dancing and really enjoyed it," she said.

MacLeod said that the first thing that stood out for her in the show was the "beauty" of the performances and how the performers were in sync.

Attending the show with MacLeod was her mother, who likewise enjoyed it. When MacLeod asked her mother what she thought about some of the performances that portrayed the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, she responded "very sad," but "I think it was a very important message to bring to the audience today."

MacLeod said that when the performance is looked at in its entirety, "whether it's the precision of the orchestra, the colors in the costumes, the magnificence of the soprano and the baritone, or just the sheer elegance of the dancers, and the combination of all that into a message of truth, and the ability to practice one's religion and their beliefs, and know, in all of that, that your good work in life will be rewarded even in the afterlife as the show tells you, it's something that I think was quite remarkable."

Sometimes we forget how fortunate we are in Canada to be able to enjoy all these rights and freedoms, MacLeod said, adding that it is "wonderful" to see it on display in the show.

"We should all be very proud of the Canadian Chinese community for bringing this performance to us."

She said the show offered a chance to share cultures and encouraged her constituents and colleagues in the Ontario legislature to celebrate and embrace Canada's cultural diversity.

"This is a very important time of the year, where we celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, we celebrate the Chinese New Year, our own New Year, and I think it's a wonderful custom in this country that we can all do it together, and we can share who we are with one another, and that's what I think tonight is about, and that's certainly what I'm taking from it but it's a very important message and I waited an entire year to see this, so I'm very fortunate," she said.

"I think that's a very important message that we are a nation of diversity...but the funny thing is, as diverse as we are, there's always some similarities."

She pointed out her mother's reaction to the piece "Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution" as an example.

"She watched that with intrigue and I think it does tell you that it's a message that in Canada we're fortunate to express ourselves, and sometimes they're not so fortunate, and I think that was an important message."

"Their commitment to their beliefs and commitment to their art is very important and I think you can see, I think it's displayed when they're working tonight, I think the audience recognizes that obviously by the response they received from the audience, I think they would know that the truth that they found within themselves is on display."

MacLeod said the show has a "double meaning": there's beauty and elegance on the surface and when thinking deeper, there's messages of "truth" and "divinity."

"I think that that's what important to the audience, I think the deeper meaning is what everybody comes back for the next year."

Source http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/content/view/9710/

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Category: Shen Yun Performing Arts