Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff will be promoting Chatham-Kent to mayors from around the globe on Friday.
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Canniff will be doing a 10- to 15-minute presentation on the municipality during the annual World Conference of Mayors in Orlando, Fla.
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“I’m honored that we can have this opportunity to make a lot more people aware of Chatham-Kent,” he said. “The result is going to be more people coming here.”
Canniff connected with the World Conference of Mayors (WCM) last year, which resulted in the founder and secretary-general Johnny Ford, bringing a busload of people to visit the Buxton National Historic Site and Museum last summer.
“We took it to the next step and I became a member of the World Conference of Mayors,” Canniff said.
He is the first Canadian mayor to join the global organization, he said.
The mayor said he later was asked to speak at the conference.
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A highlight of his presentation will be the rich Black history of Chatham-Kent, adding he has received input from local Black historical organizations.
Ford, who was the first Black mayor of Tuskegee, Ala., formed the WCM in 1984 while also serving as president of the National Conference of Black Mayors.
According to the WCM website, Ford convened mayors from across the United States, Asia, the African continent, and Caribbean Islands, for a conference in April 1984 to form the WCM.
The WCM “plans, designs, and manages an international, intergovernmental communication system, through its promotion of seven fundamental goals: trust, trade, tourism, technology, treasury, training and twin city programs and services between mayors and cities of the world,” states its website.
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