The recent win of Rafael ‘RJ’ Aquino as one of three Coalition of Progressive Electors’ (COPE) Vancouver City council candidate bodes well for the emerging political clout of the Filipino community in B.C.’s premier city. Aquino (no relation to Philippine Pres­ident Noy Aquino) is a young second-generation politician who aspires to be the first in his community to break the glass ceiling that is the Vancouver city politics.
Vancouver’s politics has been and is still is, a the white man’s turf despite the presence of a few from the so-called vis­ible minorities – an oxymoron in today’s demographic reality. More than 50 % of the city’s population is visible minorities. A Vancouver Sun feature in Nov. 2002 when Larry Campbell was elected as the city’s 37th Mayor displayed a sea of white men (not a single woman!) at the helm of the city in its 116-year history. The Chinese community started to make inroads in 1993 when Jenny Kwan made it to council. Several other Chinese politicians followed Kwan who is now an MLÅ. It was also the year that a Filipino – Maita Santiago, made an unsuccessful attempt to run for council. Since then, no Filipino had been a candidate until now with RJ Aquino’s nomination.

It is also interesting to note that Kwan and Santiago both run under the banner of COPE. Another Filipino candidate to the Parks Board – Gabby Kalaw who is run­ning under the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), would join Aquino. With Rod Belleza running for reelection in the Richmond School Board, the municipal elections on Nov. 19 will see three Filipinos trying to make it in civic politics.

Sitting NDP MLA for Vancouver Kens­ington Mable Elmore, the first Filipino to be elected to a provincial legislature in B.C. will not be up for election until May 2013. Six Filipinos will be running in the Manitoba provincial election on Oct. 4 including the incumbent NDP MLA Flor Marcelino, Min. for Culture and Heritage. In Tyndall Park, all three candidates are Filipinos: former MLA Cris Aglugub is running for the Conservatives, Ted Mar­celino (brother-in-law of Flor) is running for the NDP and Roldan Sevillano is run­ning for the Liberals. This ensures a Fili­pino is going to represent the constitu­ency.

In the Maples, Pablito Sarinas is run­ning for the Liberals and Boy Tomas for the Conservatives.
In Ontario, two Filipinas are vying for provincial seats - Nerissa Cariño, NDP, Scarborough East and Cheryll San Juan, Green Party candidate for Etobicoke Cen­tre. The elections will be held on Oct. 6.
There are no candidates in other urban centres – Montreal, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary and Edmonton although Alberta elected its first Filipino member of the provincial legislature in 2008 – Carlito Benito.
We will see next week if the candidates in Ontario and Manitoba will be success­ful and hopefully B.C. will follow in No­vember.

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