New group raising awareness for Pinoy representation in gov’t

New group raising awareness for Pinoy representation in gov’t

Grant Gonzales
Photo supplied

FILIPINO CANADIAN POLITICAL ASSOCIATION

By Veronica Silva Cusi
The Philippine Reporter

That kababayans are aiming for Ottawa comes as no surprise. In fact, getting represented in Ottawa has been an elusive goal for the almost one million Filipino Canadian community.

For this goal to be realized, some young Filipino Canadians have come together to try to get more kababayans in elected posts at all levels of government.

Joseph Guiyab
Photo supplied

“We’re almost at one million Filipino Canadians across the country, and Filipino Canadians are severely underrepresented in elected offices across municipal, provincial, and federal levels,” said Grant Gonzales, co-founder and board member of Filipino Canadian Political Association, in an interview with The Philippine Reporter.

“The Filipino Canadian Political Association’s goal is — as a new kind of grassroots cross-partisan and volunteer-led non-profit organization — to raise awareness that there is this under representation and to encourage Filipino-Canadians to run for office and to build leadership skills for the younger generation to set them up for success in the long-term,” he added.
The group was co-founded early this year by Gonzales with Joseph Guiyab and Paul Saguil.

While still a young group, Gonzales said that based on conversations with like-minded individuals across the country, the group has been able to raise awareness on the pivotal role of the Filipino community in Canada and the need to have Filipino Canadians win in elections.

He cited the case of Toronto and Ontario – the biggest city and province, respectively, in the country – where no Filipino/a has yet been elected in council and provincial parliament.

Paul Saguil
Photo supplied

But while this is true, the diaspora has been amply represented in other political posts across the country.

These include (in no particular order and by no means comprehensive) the following:

• The late Conrado Santos, MLA, Manitoba;

• Art Viola, former Lord Mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario;

• Lisa Bower, councillor, City of Ajax, Ontario;

• Rowena Santos, councillor, City of Brampton, Ontario;

• Yvonne Clarke, first Filipina MLA, Yukon Territory;

• Jon Reyes, MLA, Waverley, and Minister of Economic Development and Jobs, Manitoba;

• Malaya Marcelino, MLA for Winnipeg Notre Dame, Manitoba;

• Flor Marcelino, former MLA and Minister of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, first woman of colour elected as MLA in the province, and interim leader of the NDP official opposition, Manitoba;

• Ted Marcelino, former MLA, Tyndall Park, Manitoba;

• Mable Elmore, MLA for Vancouver-Kensington, first MLA of Filipino heritage, B.C.;

• Jocelyn Curteanu, Councillor, City of Whitehorse, Yukon;

• The late Alex Chiu, Councillor, City of Markham, Ontario;

• Tony Yao, MLA, Fort McMurray – Wood Buffalo, AB, whose father emigrated from the Philippines after World War II; and

• Rommel Silverio, councillor, City of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

The late Senator Tobias Enverga, Jr., Conservative Party, was appointed to the Senate by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2012 and served until his passing in 2017.

“These [facts] stand out, and I think people outside of our community are really starting to pay attention,” said Gonzales, as can be gauged by the fact that there are Filipinos running this federal election and the interest even of mainstream media on their new group.

The group released hard data on these on their website based on the 2019 federal election.

“There are 37 ridings where the Filipino-Canadian population was larger than the 2019 margin of victory. Political parties would be wise to meaningfully engage one of the fastest growing population groups in Canada. And yet, for 17 years and counting, there has not been a single Filipino-Canadian Member of Parliament,” said Gonzales in a press statement last March.

In Toronto, these ridings are York Centre, Davenport, Willowdale, and Eglinton-Lawrence.

Interestingly, Toronto is a Liberal stronghold, and the Liberals have four Filipino-Canadians who ran in the September 20 election across the country.

Gonzales said that while he and his co-founders are members of the Liberal Party, their group is “very much focused on building across partisan organization. This partisan background is not stopping us from engaging with other parties, like Phil De Luna [Green Party candidate for the Toronto-St. Paul’s], who we connected with the Green Party [of Canada].”

“We want Filipinos to step up, and we want to support [them] across all parties. … We celebrate all Filipinos who are simply engaged in the political process. … It doesn’t matter which party they identify with. It’s something that our organization wants to encourage regardless of political background. … Then we want to really celebrate the success when one from our community gets elected.

We’re not an issue-based organization, so it’s less about that more about more Filipinos in elected office,” he added.

Gonzales said the group is just starting with its efforts, and even if there will be a kababayan elected in Parliament Hill, one representative is not enough.

“We still need to make sure that political parties continue to take our community seriously, and we also need to support those who want to explore running for office but don’t know where to start,” he added. “There’s so much important work to do that goes beyond the federal election, but I think in raising awareness there’s at least — as far as we are aware — six Filipino Canadians running for office in British Columbia, Manitoba and end Ontario combined, and I think that that’s a good start. It’s important that [Filipino Canadians] are stepping up to run for office.”