Volume 4, Issue No. 65
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of Romar Media Canada, The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail.com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .
Our latest as of Tuesday, June 20, 2023
~ Pollsters listed six top runners for mayor of Toronto, namely: Olivia Chow, Mark Saunders, Ana Bailao, Josh Matlow, Brad Bradford, and Mitzie Hunter. Nowhere is there a mention of the tailenders - the dozens and dozens of dreamers who want to serve in their own right. Of the 102 candidates, two Filipinos are statistically guaranteed to land at the bottom of the pile. But credit is due for their daring.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BY-ELECTION IS ON MONDAY, JUNE 26
Front-Runners and Tailenders for Toronto Mayor
Of the 102 Dreamers, Two Are Filipinos
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves". - Thomas Merlon
TORONTO - The city will elect a new mayor on Monday, June 26, and whoever wins will serve the remainder of resigned John Tory's four-year term which ends until the next general elections in October 2026.
The disgraced 69-year-old mayor quit on February 17, just a few months after he was elected for a third term in October 2022 over an admitted extramarital affair with a staff member 38 years his junior. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN7Sa7gnlJo).
Two aspects of the poll make it an interesting exercise, especially for Filipinos. One, two Filipinos have thrown their hat in the ring, namely, a photographer named Jose Baking, and the well-liked realtor Willie Reodica. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40XJ63VWGuM).
And two, the incredibly high number of candidates, at 102. That figure is literally a giant leap considering that in the October 2022 elections, there were only 31 candidates vying for the post.
Though the attempts by Baking and Reodica - futile, to say the least - to capture the mayorship swing between naught to hopelessness, they deserve some credit for the confidence, or misplaced bravado, they are showing the Filipino community.
The impossibility of winning does not seem to factor in their dynamics. Nor does it affect them at all. The fun of running (or a potential windfall in fundraising) appears to be the adrenaline that keeps them going.
In a real sense, Baking and Reodica are showing mainstream Toronto that the Filipino community is not to be discounted for lack of gutsy daydreamers. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/04/its-not-joke-jose-baking-aka-joey-is.html).
In fact we have a whole army of them who imagine the day some would be called by the different degrees of honorifics of status and respectability. "President" of that or "chairman/ woman" of this organization don't seem enough anymore to satisfy a craving for recognition.
Filipinos have the numbers to put one of their own in municipal and provincial offices but for their fractious view of governance epitomized by mutual benefit associations and organizations.
Clout, influence, strength, weight, and visibility - we have them all except that we never dare to integrate them into one unified whole. To each his own.
Moreover, the quality of our candidates in the current electoral contest leaves much to be desired. Their public exposure is limited to friends, families, and the Filipino community.
This is not to say we don't have people who can hold a candle to the best mainstream candidate there is.
Paul Saguil, for example, a lawyer who is deputy head of TD Bank's Global Sanction Compliance and Anti-Bribery/Anti- Corruption Program. He unfortunately lost in last year's elections for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
He previously sought the Liberal Party's nomination to be its candidate for Member of Parliament in 2021. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYOA39iwTNA).
There's also Phil de Luna, Ph.D., a young scientist, who ran for another MP seat in 2021 but lost. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqD0G_4u8bk).
We tend to ignore our value as voters, content at being wooed, and pleased at being nominally acknowledged for some inconsequential undertaking.
On the other hand, politicians see that as a weakness, so they exploit us in many merry ways like showing up in our events, partaking of our food, dancing and laughing with us, and generously praising us to high heavens.
I remember this person who self-declared himself founder of a street festival. Of course, it isn't true; he actually stole the idea from the Philippine consulate where he was employed and took extreme delight at being called "Congen" by people who didn't know he was just a chauffeur.
Once at the height of excitement, he was referred to by the sitting prime minister as "Tito ____", his name sounding like the interjection "holy moly". That shout-out was his instant glory which cemented his induction into the world of street festivals.
I captured that moment in a video and uploaded it on my YouTube channel. After I learned that he was using that video to market and monetize the festival and promote himself, I deleted it right away. But the raw copy is still in my files.
But I digress. The point of this article is to highlight the endless assertion that Filipinos need to unite so they could be a powerful political force to be reckoned with.
Say, would we unite behind any of the two Filipino candidates for Toronto mayor? (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).
No comments:
Post a Comment