Filipino immigrants were adamant to involve in Canadian politics. We believed that politics anywhere
was the same. Besides, we were too busy working for new living standard that we just had no time for
it. We didn't know how it worked and it was better to leave it that way. We just minded our own
business. We already had the unpleasantness with internal politics in the nutshell of our small
community and to engage further into real ones outside was deemed not a good idea.
We were basically strangers in a place uniquely different from the one we grew up. The people, the
culture and language were so uncommon. I thought that I knew how to speak English, but they don't say
it the way I learnt in school. The whole place in winter looked like another planet that was devoid
of any existence of life. To think about politics was the least in our system. A little voice in me
kept whispering instead to go back to tropical Cabcabon. I knew why Nards Buranday, a friend in
Butuan did not stay very long.
Alberta was not a favorite destination to immigrants. They chose big city centers like Vancouver,
Toronto or Montreal. Alberta was a far flung prairie farmland eight hundred miles from the sea. The
biggest city was Edmonton with under a hundred thousand people. Calgary was 300 kilometers south and
almost the same size as Edmonton, the capital of the province. I decided to settle in Calgary with
sixty eight Filipinos.
There was a little touch of vanity in early Filipinos in the city. The reason could be that they were
recruited purposely by employers in the Philippines for their expertise. They were mostly medical
professionals. Engineers and technical people too were brought in to work in energy related
industries. Oil was discovered in the province and was believed to be much bigger than Saudi Arabia.
Majority of us lived in the northeast quadrant where the city's general hospital was located. This
was convenient to workers in medical related field. This was significant in politics as kababayans
coming to take advantage of the economic boom also chose to reside in the same area. In the 70's and
80's, eighty percent of Filipinos lived in northeast Calgary.
Our community grew up unexpectedly in just few years. We already had the numbers to control the
nomination process in northeast ridings both provincial and federal. This was noteworthy because in a
parliamentary political system, any candidate winning the nomination of a popular party in power was
about all the way to win also the general election. The battleground therefore was in the
constituency nomination. We could have won it easily in convention meetings of only five hundred to a
thousand voters.
But we didn't have community support. As I said before that our community started on a wrong foot. As
we went on, Filipinos were severely fractionalized into opposing groups. Our collective political
potency could not move further from just being potential. We had been used, re-used, misused and
abused in supporting non-Filipino candidates. Yes, we knew it. But we simply can't make ourselves
into something politically useful. In the contrary, politics became a nest of ire amongst Filipinos.
Canadian politicians were the culprits. Fearing to face against unified opposition, they adapted the
divide and conquer strategy by favoring selected Filipinos with goodies and favors to become leaders
in their campaign. This kind of tactic was effectual as it splintered our community to several
groups all campaigning against each other. This maneuver however was very harmful as it promoted
animosity between family clans even long after the election campaign.
Then the emergence of ethnic power brokers came into the picture. Backroom pushers and arm twisters
dominated the nomination procedure. Northeast Calgary nomination fell into the hand of these
influential and dominant people. It was extremely difficult for any candidate to win nomination
without the blessing from ethnic communities. Political process was held hostage by radical leaders
with special intention. Canadian politics was switched into different gear by adopting the immigrant
politics of their homeland.
Political madness continued and was at its peak during the 80.s. Through the government.s policy of
opening the floodgates on immigration in the 70.s by way of family reunification, our community's
antagonism with each other was no longer between individuals, but with family groupings. It was kind
of a free for all to immigrants whose purpose in coming was supposedly for the betterment of living.
It was understandable that no Filipino was interested to run for public office. Our community was in
disarray and fiercely divided. Nonetheless, the opportunity was still there and by demographic,
Calgary or Winnipeg were the most possible places abroad to ably elect Filipinos to the highest
law-making body of the country. Calgary was the first choice then, but Dr. Rey Pagtakhan of Winnipeg
was elected to the House of Commons and later became a federal minister.
I managed a campaign in 1985 to possibly elect a Filipino as member of the Canadian Parliament. We
had a notion that a Filipino candidate amidst the fracas of an ethnic dominated nomination contest
would cater patriotic bayang magiliw support. It was a fascinating experience, but we didn't make it.
We lost badly.
It was also in the late 80's when I initiated putting together a number of Filipino political
leaders. Relationship was at its lowest ebb that we agreed to join forces with the hope to solidify
political strength. It was only a gentlemen's agreement but twenty four leaders consented calling
ourselves the Filipino Political Action Group. We engaged in the campaign to elect the premier of the
province. Opposition in the community was much lesser than before. It was a fun campaign with no
ill-feelings generated amongst community members. It was indeed a big change from previous ones.
The same people were with me in the intense nomination campaign of the northeast federal constituency
just months after the premier election. It was the biggest nomination election in the country. I was
previously elected vice president of the constituency association. I took charge the Filipinos under
the Filipino Political Action Group. This nomination contest involved all visible ethnic communities
of the city. It was a six-month, highly contested and well financed campaign between two opposing
Canadian candidates.
As ethnic communities were severely split, the Filipinos were not that far apart. We too were divided
into two factions. It was however a mild quarrel compared to almost warring attitude of other
immigrant groups. Nevertheless, it was enough to fracture our relationship once again. Our candidate
was defeated when a revote was ordered because of alleged electoral anomaly. It cancelled out the
victory we had before. This further intensified the already battered feelings of the ethnic people.
(To be continued in Chapter 7: Reversed Racism)
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