B.C. elected only one MP of Chinese descent:
Raymond Chan. How concerned are you about this?
Straight Issues:
Charlie Smith, Georgia Straight news director, called me up last week to ask me about the Chinese-Canadian heat tax/exclusion act issues, and about working with the BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants.
Check out Charlie's Stories
Head Tax unites activists
Sid Tan
Head-tax-payer descendant and president of the Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society
“It doesn’t really matter. I don’t do the Chinese thing. The head tax is a motherhood issue.”
Thekla Lit
President, B.C. Association for Learning and Preserving the History of World War II in Asia
“I
feel that with the population we have, we should have some Chinese MPs.
I prefer to have good Chinese MPs than any Chinese MPs….I hope that
when the Chinese community becomes more mature, that we will have good
Chinese MPs.”
David Wong
Head-tax-payer descendant, architect, and community activist
“I
actually feel it is important to find a Canadian of Chinese ancestry to
be involved at a senior political level. I’m not talking about recent
arrivals like Raymond Chan….I’m hoping that more ‘banana’ candidates
come out during the course of my lifetime.”
Todd Wong
Head-tax-payer descendant and founder of the annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy Chinese New Year’s dinner
“With
Raymond Chan, who is of Chinese descent and as a Liberal, he really
didn’t seem to understand it was the descendants who needed to be
addressed and not the Chinese-language population….The community is so
diverse and they were just looking at one segment of the population. On
the other hand, we have the NDP—Margaret Mitchell, Libby Davies, and
Peter Julian—who have been working on this issue for a long time.”