Leave Multi-Culturalism For Street Festivals

I don't have any problem with city council mirroring the community but picking up garbage, repairing potholes, keeping the streets safe, etc. have little to do with ethnicity and I would prefer that city councillors deal with those issues.

Will city councils still be as white bread as ever?
ELECTION | A record number of minority candidates are running for office, but not all voters want to decide along ethnic lines
Nov. 5, 2006. 01:00 AM
NICHOLAS KEUNG, PRITHI YELAJA AND SAN GREWAL
STAFF REPORTERS

Anyone glancing at the faces and names in the running in this year's municipal elections might conclude that we're on the verge of a minority breakthrough in GTA politics.

It may be the biggest roster of minority candidates ever — especially among the black, Chinese and Filipino communities. But according to the keenest observers of those communities, it's debatable whether city councils after the Nov. 13 ballot will be any less white bread than they are now.

That's because the factors that work against minority candidates aren't going away any time soon: the traditional apathy of new-Canadian voters to municipal politics, the lack of a party system to aid non-establishment contenders, and a tendency to splinter the vote in high-immigrant wards.

There are a record 41 candidates of Chinese origin running for councils and school boards in the GTA, but Tak Lam, editor of Ming Pao Daily, says only a handful have a real chance.

Municipal elections are a tough place for immigrant or minority hopefuls to break in, says Lam, because of the absence of political parties that could provide expertise, a platform and financial backing.

"The feeling is very different from (provincial and federal) elections, because candidates have to campaign on their own. Some of them are newcomers who don't really know how to run a campaign in an election here, and they may not have the resources to print campaign literature and recruit volunteers," Lam explains. "They'd all have a better chance if they got some help in that."

A Lot Of Help