Kudos to Mabel Elmore
June 5, 2009 - 10:40am
Nice to see the press coverage for Mabel
She's B.C.'s first MLA of Philippine heritage
Social activist won over diverse community
Filipino church and community leader Demi Avendano figures all Elmore's good works as an activist came full circle when she herself needed a helping hand to get elected.
"She dedicated herself to the disenfranchised, the underprivileged, and the caregivers," said Avendano. "When she decided to run, the people that she had helped believed in her.
"There was a groundswell of support from the Philippine community."
In person, Elmore is passionate, energetic, and still a little startled by her electoral success, and her newfound celebrity.
http://www.theprovince.com/first+Philippine+heritage/1664688/story.html
Interesting to see the different takes on her victory - like this pretty offensive one:
Mable Elmore is a union activist, a social and political activist - a representative of all the disenfranchised, as one interviewee put it. Already the pressure has started to portray her as an "ethnic" representative. She will need all her strength to resist that stereotyping and restriction.
Huh?
"I was surprised by the enthusiasm and response from the Filipino community," she said. "There was a real appetite to see a Filipino representative.
"I've heard from people around the province, right across the country, and even internationally.
"We had a community party, and we had over 500 people there."
June 12 is Philippine Independence Day, and Elmore will be the keynote speaker at several B.C. gatherings -- now giving her community even more to celebrate.
You would deny her her heritage, when she is embracing it?
Who's denying her her heritage? It's one thing for her to say she had support from the Filipino community, which is fine - it's another thing to imply that she was elected by and represents the Filipino community - she was elected by all communities across the whole riding, and she doesn't just represent people from her ethnic background.
I've seen that kind of discourse in Toronto politics too - I remember one time a guy of Chinese background ran in Toronto-Danforth (I think), and one of the comments I heard made was that he was unlikely to win since there aren't enough Chinese people in the community who will vote for him. The main implications being that a) a person of Chinese background can't really represent anyone but Chinese people, and b) people not of Chinese background won't vote for him.
And in my riding too - I remember well the discussions about my riding, which has a large number of people of Portuguese background. And I was constantly hearing "conventional wisdom" about how you have to get someone of Portuguese and Catholic background to run in Davenport, otherwise they'll lose. The implication, of course, being that Portuguese people are clannish and only vote for "their own", and that Portuguese people couldn't be just as well represented by people of other ethnic or racial backgrounds - and that the Portuguese somehow have a stranglehold on our riding politically.
It's a fine line between recognizing community support, celebrating milestones, and slipping into unconscious assumptions about ethnic groups.
Personally, I only vote for bilingual anti-Zionist male caucasian Jewish trade-unionists slightly to the left of the NDP, so I rarely make it to the ballot box.
On a more serious note, thanks for the fine response, Michelle, nothing to add.
Hmmmm, in my mind we need more elected officials who are bilingual anti-Zionist Jewish trade unionists, slightly to the left of the NDP.
It's a fine line between recognizing community support, celebrating milestones, and slipping into unconscious assumptions about ethnic groups.
Frankly, she does represent the Filipino community, just as others do from other ethnic communtiies, that is the whole point of of reaching out to those from diverse ethnic communities, so that they may have a voice too, and saying so does not mean, that they will not represent others in their community and that their focus will only be on their community. The same holds true for getting more women voices in parliament, so women's voices can be heard, this does not mean that women will not represent the males in their ridings, either.
If there was no concern about differing voices being heard and represented, or not, we would just keep on electing white males.
Frankly, she does represent the Filipino community, just as others do from other ethnic communtiies, that is the whole point of of reaching out to those from diverse ethnic communities, so that they may have a voice too, and saying so does not mean, that they will not represent others in their community and that their focus will only be on their community. The same holds true for getting more women voices in parliament, so women's voices can be heard, this does not mean that women will not represent the males in their ridings, either.
If there was no concern about differing voices being heard and represented, or not, we would just keep on electing white males.
Mable Elmore does not represent "the Filipino community", unless she is elected to some position in a Filipino organization. She does not represent women, unless women elect her to represent their interests. She does not represent the LGBT community. She does not represent busdrivers, or workers in general. She represents all her constituents, whether they voted for her or not, and whatever they look like or do or wherever they come from.
The idea of "reaching out" is to ensure that the marginalized and the oppressed participate in the seats of power at all levels of the society. It is not to marginalize them further by ghettoizing them and portraying them as "representatives" of "their people".
Any Filipino Canadian - or non-Filipino Canadian - who attempts to frame Elmore as a representative of Filipino Canadians will fail.
I remember one time a guy of Chinese background ran in Toronto-Danforth (I think), and one of the comments I heard made was that he was unlikely to win since there aren't enough Chinese people in the community who will vote for him. The main implications being that a) a person of Chinese background can't really represent anyone but Chinese people, and b) people not of Chinese background won't vote for him.
Just out of curiosity, did you vote for him?
Of course it is.
But, she didn't win the support of most Filipino-Canadians in her riding just because of her CAW or anti-war activism, or because of her beliefs, her party, her campaign, or what have you.
It was also because many in her community wanted to see a Filipino MLA, which IMO is entirely legitimate.
On a separate but somewhat related note, last year in Vancouver we seen a sweep by Vision Vancouver's more well-known and primarily white candidates and Vision's big losers were its visible minority candidates. There is a massive under-representation of Vancouver's many minority ethnic communities and new immigrant communities in provincial and local government, not to mention within the NDP and other primarily white progressive organizations. Plus, given the institutional racism of the electoral system (and the electorate), I am 100% supportive of any non-white community in Vancouver, or anywhere in Canada, voting en masse for a candidate with whom they share ethnic heritage, even if that is the dominant or sole reason for their vote. Don't you?
Sure, why not? As long as the winner doesn't put themselves forward as some kind of representative of an ethnic group.
On a separate but somewhat related note, last year in Vancouver we seen a sweep by Vision Vancouver's more well-known and primarily white candidates and Vision's big losers were its visible minority candidates. There is a massive under-representation of Vancouver's many minority ethnic communities and new immigrant communities in provincial and local government, not to mention within the NDP and other primarily white progressive organizations. Plus, given the institutional racism of the electoral system (and the electorate), I am 100% supportive of any non-white community in Vancouver, or anywhere in Canada, voting en masse for a candidate with whom they share ethnic heritage, even if that is the dominant or sole reason for their vote. Don't you?
Actually that's not true. The only people who did particularly poorly were Vision/COPE's Indo-Canadian candidates. It's debatable whether or not that was due to institutional racism, or simply whether or not they were less well known throughout the wider community, especially seeing as Chinese, Black and First Nations candidates from those parties were elected relatively easily. In fact, the guy who topped the polls for council was of Chinese decent and the woman who topped the polls for Parks Board was Black. So while I'd agree that there isn't enough diversity in some sections of the NDP, for instance federally - and while I'd agree that progressive organizations need to do a better job with increasing diversity, I do not agree that voting for a candidate just because of, or mostly because of, their ethnic heritage is something to be 100% supportive off. People have that right in a democracy, but it's not as if it's automatically good. For instance, lets suppose Michelle Malkin became Canadian, then ran in Vancouver-Kensington - would it automatically be "a good thing" if the Filipino community voted en masse for her just because they had the same ethnicity? (Not that any one community actually votes en masse for the most part.)