Winnipeg's Ukrainian community is abuzz about a visit by Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko on May 27.
"We're very excited to have the president in Winnipeg," Lesia Szwaluk, president of the provincial council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, said Thursday.
She said the date of the visit has been confirmed by a member of the Ukrainian embassy, although the itinerary has yet to be ironed out.
Sources said that tentatively, Yushchenko would meet with Premier Gary Doer, receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Winnipeg and visit the monument at the legislative grounds to 19th-century poet Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian hero who dreamed of independence.
There may also be a private reception for the 54-year-old European leader at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
Yushchenko was elected president of Ukraine in December 2004 in a vicious campaign in which he was poisoned.
Tentatively, he is scheduled to visit Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto.
It would be his first visit to Canada.
Dwight MacAulay, chief of protocol for the province, said Ukrainian and Canadian officials are working on a visit by the Ukrainian leader, but details won't be ironed out until after a May 17 advance meeting of government officials.
"The truth is, nothing's confirmed yet," MacAulay said, including the date of a visit. "Everything that we're planning right now is still tentative until we get a final OK on it."
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
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