Saguil, aspiring MP, not giving up

Saguil, aspiring MP, not giving up

Paul Jonathan Saguil, former nominee for Liberal Party candidacy for MP of Toronto Centre. (Photo provided)

By Mila Astorga-Garcia
The Philippine Reporter

Paul Jonathan Saguil, a 38 year old Filipino Canadian lawyer, was until recently running for nomination to become the Liberal Member of Parliament Candidate for the Toronto Centre Riding vacated by the resignation of previous Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

His campaign, however, which he ran with a team of volunteers from the Filipino and other communities, was unexpectedly aborted, when he learned that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had already appointed the Liberal Party candidate for the riding in the person of Marci Ien.

Saguil has this to say about the appointed official Liberal Party candidate in his riding: “I’ve met with Marci Ien to discuss the important local issues impacting Toronto Centre — she is a talented advocate and will be a strong MP for this riding. In my personal capacity and as a community activist with various organizations, I’ll work with her and other public figures to make sure that no one gets left behind in the post-pandemic recovery and to keep building a better city and country.”

This development, although a step back to Saguil and his supporters, will not deter them from pursuing the goal they had set themselves to reach: to finally have a Filipino-Canadian sitting in the Canadian Parliament again.

After all, it has been decades since the first and only successful Filipino Canadian, Winnipeg, Manitoba resident Dr. Rey Pagtakhan, made it to win a seat in the Canadian Parliament. There, he rose up to assume important positions such as cabinet minister in the governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, and served as a member of parliament from 1988 until his defeat in the 2004 election.

Saguil, whose work experience includes a practicing barrister-solicitor, a corporate executive manager and community advocate, believes Filipino-Canadians should continue working toward inclusion, diversity and representation in government. He says Filipinos still remain very much under-represented in politics despite their big and growing numbers, and significant contributions to Canadian society. Thus he hopes he can help change that situation as he encourages others to do the same.

“I’m committed to keep fighting for inclusion of equity-seeking groups and looking to get on the ballot in the next cycle and to serve Canadians as an elected official. I’m also focused on engaging and mobilizing the Filipino-Canadian community to become more politically active so we can build a pipeline for talent and nurture future leaders in public office,” Saguil says.

When asked why the decision to appoint the candidate was made instead of the usual nomination and candidate election route, Saguil maintains that only someone in the Liberal Party leadership could answer the question.

A senior level organizer of the Liberal Party, who preferred not to be identified, told The Philippine Reporter that only the Prime Minister and not anyone else in the Liberal Party can provide the reason. He said that another appointment by the Prime Minister was also done recently in another Toronto riding. This is the first time candidate appointments were made by Trudeau, but these were done many times by previous Prime Ministers before him, he observed.

The same organizer believes the Party machinery could have done better, though, in being more transparent and accountable at least to the stakeholders — the aspiring nominees, the volunteers involved in the campaign and the community – by informing them beforehand of the possible selection processes and protocols, rather than surprising everyone with the final decision made without any explanation.

Saguil says he was advised by the Liberal Party to look for other ridings where he could run, which is what he and his team are set to do, encouraged by the support he has seen so far.