Today I had lunch with Andrew Winstanley of the Canadian Club.  We first met back in 2003, at a Laurier Institution reception following an event for Asian Heritage Month at the Vancouver Museum. Last month in May, we met again, at the COPE fundraiser Encouraging Women in Politics, where I was one of the featured guest performers.  It turned out that Andrew's daughter had been the lead organizer of the event.

Anyways…
we made our way past all the crowds of people attending the Aga Khan's
visit to Vancouver today (June 10, 2005).  We were amazed to see
so many Ismali people in downtown Vancouver.  Interestingly
enough, Andrew said that the Aga Khan is an honourary companion to the Order of Canada for his philanthropy, given early in 2005.  Wow!

Surprisingly, the Imperial restaurant
on Burrard was not that crowded.  We were quickly seated upstairs
and ordered a variety of dim sum staples such as har-gau and sui-mai.
   Andrew also really enjoyed my favorite lo-bak goh (turnip
cake) and he enjoyed the story of how I presented lo-bak-go and haggis
won-ton to Shelagh Rogers at a CBC Reception welcoming her and the
Sounds Like Canada crew to Vancouver in Septemeber 2003.

We had
a wonderful talk about our experiences of being Canadian.  Andrew
shared that he had lived in Quebec during the rise of the Bloc
Quebecois, and had been in the middle of things hired as a token
anglophile to help write political speeches amongst other things. I
shared with him that I had visited Montreal and Quebec City as part of
a college exchange program, that had me speaking french until I spoke
english with a very bad Quebecker accent.

Recently the Canadian
Club hosted its annual luncheon for Order of Canada recipients and he
showed me pictures, where 11 of the 17 Vancouver area recipients
attended including Vancouver city councillor Sam Sullivan. 
Another former recipient Bing Thom gave the address.

Down to
business… Andrew told me about the Canadian Club and how he has been
involved as a president, and past president. And invited me to become a
member…  He likes what I have done in Vancouver,
event-wise.  And he would like me to help the club with some
programming.

Do I have the stuff to be a member of the one of
Canada's oldest associations, begun in 1893?  hmm… what would my
Great Great Grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan, who arrived in 1896, think?