Pictures from CanCham’s Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner 2025 are still on the way. 

Over fifty members and friends attended CanCham’s Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner on October 13th, 2025 at the Radisson Blu Elizabete Hotel, Elizabetes iela 73, Restaurant C.U.T. where we were delighted to be served a traditional turkey (legs and all) complete with stuffing, cranberry sauce, veggies, etc. Compliments to the chef (again) for preparing everything in such a traditional and tasty manner giving the evening an exquisite touch. Particularly noteworthy was the fact that we again had the opportunity to continue this tradition for the sixth year at this venue.

CanCham’s Chairman, Ed Kalvins, welcomed our guests reminiscing that Thanksgiving is the last “long weekend” of the year when Canadians in Canada head to the cottage to close the season, or organize turkey dinners for family and friends, and reminded everyone that they were allowed to make friends with people they didn’t know yet within the CanCham community. We then recognized Gold level members VentEko represented by Edgars Dimitrijevs and Bravo Zulu represented by Matt Bentley who are key contributors to the CanCham. Board and Audit representatives were introduced (Indra Sproģe-Kalviņa, Mark Watson and Normunds Kupcis, Una Brūna and Dzintra Reinigere) along with the Embassy’s representative to the Board, Nicolas Lepage, the Canadian Senior Trade Commissioner who has been instrumental in supporting the CanCham.

Nicolas Lepage then welcomed those present on behalf of the Embassy of Canada emphasizing the Embassy’s support for the CanCham as it contributes to developing partnerships for both military projects and commercial development between Canada and Latvia.

Our special guest, Colonel Jim Smith, Commander, Task Force Latvia, Canadian Armed Forces, addressed those present by providing his thoughts on what the Canadian Thanksgiving means to him and provided insight into recent developments regarding TFL and the Canadian deployment in Latvia.

We need to remember that the Canadian Armed Forces are part of Task Force Latvia helping preserve security in this region. One of the CanCham’s main objectives is to “strengthen the bonds between Canada and Latvia”. We do this, in part, through such social events providing Canadians and Latvians the opportunity to meet in person in order to promote and strengthen each society’s positive perceptions of the other. Such an event gives local Latvians a rare opportunity to mingle with “real Canadians”.

We also mentioned the upcoming Procurement Seminar & Luncheon on October 27, 2025 for those interested in “Making the Connection to supply goods and services to the Canadian Armed Forces in Latvia”.

We then proceeded to the meal enjoying the elegance of the Restaurant C.U.T. surroundings which created cosiness, intimacy and positive emotions. A good night was had by all.

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