CKNW Editorial
for November 7, 2000

A great many British Columbians of European extraction don’t like what they see around them. I would have said ‘white people" but that would be too evocative and would have marked me a bigot … I must always be politically correct. Large communities like Richmond what used to be European are now mostly Asian and this is not universally approved of.

I, for one, think that the large influx of non Europeans was done with too little preparation – many quite "l" liberal people find it hard to see a neighbourhood change so suddenly.

But it’s happened and now we must adapt to new conditions. And nowhere is that more apparent than in politics. Both Cathy Ferguson in Kamloops and Doug McCallum recently lost Liberal nominations, we’re told, because the Indo-Canadian population ganged up on them. We’re also told that Premier Ujjal Dosanjh was beneficiary of an Indo-Canadian gang up.

Let’s first put this in perspective. Ethnicity dies very hard indeed. The Irish came to Boston in the middle of the 19^th century yet still are very much a force to be reckoned with in Massachusetts. The Kennedy dynasty proves this. The Swedes came to Wisconsin in the 19^th century and as a voting group have extraordinary impact. New York Jews are a target ethnic entity and no one wanting to win anything would ignore that except at his peril. The Polish vote is a big factor in several states. The Hispanic vote in many states bordering Mexico is critical, indeed definitive of any political outcome.

Many of us don’t like the idea that a European hasn’t a chance of election in some constituencies and has an uphill battle, because of their white skin in others. But that’s the political reality. And we have to, in fairness, note that when ethnic communities first tried to get involved politically we deprived them of the vote. That’s something any community will find hard to forget.

We can, of course, gnash our teeth and shake our fists in rage at what we see as the taking away of our birthright. So those who feel so inclined, settle back and have a great big rage full gnash.

Now some advice to politicians. You cannot fight ethnicity but you can understand it and make the best of it. While ethnic communities are bound together, partly by race, partly by religion, and partly in response to what they see as hostility beyond their boundaries this is natural and is precisely what Britons, Irish, Jewish, Polish, French, German and many other communities are. My question to Mr McCallum, Ms Ferguson and others is this – you were beaten by members of your own party by an ethnic group within that party. How much effort did you make to reach out to them? Did you have prominent members of that community in your campaign group? Did you seek out their concerns and try to deal with them? I ask that because while a member of an ethnic group will pull a lot of that group with him, not everybody is going to agree. Ethnic Asian communities, just like Catholics, Anglicans, Jews and other religious groups contain within them many different opinions so there are varied opinions in ethnic communities. If, on the other hand, you take a "them or us" approach you shouldn’t be surprised that "them" sticks together.

There are going to be "ethnic" constituencies – there always have been. It’s just when the constituencies were white we didn’t think of them as that. I think, for example, it impossible for a non Asian to win in Richmond, South Vancouver and Kingsway and I think Vancouver East will see Milton Low give Libby Davies a hell of a fight. It’s interesting to see that in Kingsway that all major candidates are of Chinese extraction. These are political facts of life Just as the need to keep the gay community in Vancouver Centre not mad at you is critical if you want to win there.

Politics reflects, with considerable accuracy, the cultural make-up of the community. It does so in Richmond just as it does in Oak Bay, in South Vancouver or in the British Properties. Politicians have to get used to this – so do the rest of us … unless, of course, we get our jollies gnashing our teeth in rage.