NOTEBOOK: Is this our coming of age?

NOTEBOOK: Is this our coming of age?

Filipinos joining the fray in GTA municipal elections

THE FIRST thought that crossed my mind when I learned about the proliferation of municipal election candidates with Filipino background was: Is this the long-awaited coming of age of the Filipino community in Toronto? Are we finally waking up to the reality that we need to join mainstream politics to serve our community’s interests? Is this for real? Or is this just a burst of enthusiasm over the political possibilities?

There are about half a dozen Filipino-Canadians running for Councillor in various wards in the Toronto and Greater Toronto Area. Among the more prominent names are Rowena Santos, a young maverick in the Parkdale-High Park inToronto; Willie Reodica of Scarborough Centre, Ward 38; Joyce Rodriguez, Wards 2 and 6 in Brampton; and of course, the 7-term veteran Councillor Alex Chiu of Ward 8 in Markham. Then there is Ramon Datol, publisher and editor of The Philippine Courier and was a journalist in the Manila media, who’s running for Mayor of Richmond Hill.

We are printing in this issue some of these candidates’ campaign literature. See pages 15 to 20 and 27.
There may be a couple or more names running for Councillor with Filipino background but their campaign materials are not available to us at this time.

But going back to my old question: Does this development of a sudden appearance of Filipino candidates mean we are starting to wake up as a community and want to participate in the political process to advance our community’s interests?

The candidates want to have their voices heard in the municipal level of government for sure. But do they articulate the interests and aspirations of the community they come from? Judging from the pronouncements and platforms of these candidates, they don’t seem to reflect the aspirations of the grassroots Filipino community in Toronto and GTA. Read their literature and except for a very few, you cannot distinguish their ideas and plans from those of other candidates. Try switching the names and pictures on their flyers with those of their opponents and candidates in other areas, can you still distinguish and identify their ideas and promises?

My point is, these candidates come from an ethnic visible minority in the city, particularly the Filipino community. They had experienced (and some still do) the same challenges that faced the over-whelming majority of their kababayans as newcomers or oldtimers in Canada. I’m referring to being relegated to the fringes of the “economic apartheid” of society, having no access to professions we were trained for in our home country, being confined to cheap labor jobs for many years, like doctors driving cabs, engineers working in factory assembly lines, etc. I’m talking about discrimination in the work place and even in schools due to our skin color and accent, and the general lack of work opportunities for immigrant and ethnic populations. Also, the issue of how our youth are treated by the police as a whole, as blatantly exposed in the case of the fatal shooting of Jeffrey Reodica.

Filipino live-in caregivers are made to work overtime hours without pay. It is not unusual that they work 12 hours seven days a week while their pay is for eight hours for five days a week. There are many cases of physical and sexual abuse that victimize Filipino nannies, domestic helpers and caregivers to the elderly and the sick.

Some people I shared these thoughts with said the issues of access to professions and immig-ration/labor problems are not municipal issues, nor separate school board issues but federal and provincial concerns. But it is in the cities that the immigrant populations are concentrated. In their big numbers,their social and economic miserable existence forms the core of city life. Should the ethnic minority candidates just ignore this just so they could blend with the mainstream politicians who are usually detached from the life experiences of people in the grassroots?

Besides, candidates with ethnic backgrounds precisely appeal to their communities because they are presumed to be more sensitive to the real issues that affect these ethnic populations. What makes them different are not only their skin color, accent and religion but more so that their hearts and souls are with their ethnic constituencies and they feel with them in their hardships.

Unless our candidates articulate our community’s interests, it is not yet time to say our community is coming of age in the political sense. (But still, vote for your Filipino candidate of choice, who understands you more than the others.)