The recent impressive win of NDP MLA Gregor Robertson as Vision Vancouver’s official candidate for the coming mayoralty race bodes well for the now dormant political involvement of Filipinos in civic politics. It is no secret that Filipinos helped him clinched the nomination 
against two formidable opponents - councilor Raymond Louie who also had support from the community and veteran parks board commissioner Alan de Genova. Considering our numbers – we are the third largest ethnic group in the City of Vancouver, next to the Chinese and South Asians, it is high time that we flex our muscles.
In the reality of Canadian politics, power belongs to who can deliver the most number of votes and politicians who ignore this, do so at their peril. In an interview with PNT after his nomination, Robertson acknowledged the support he got from the Filipino community and promised to reach out to them so that they can be represented in civic affairs. Like any other fight, winning a political fight is easier said than done.
Filipino political acumen has to be honed and nurtured. Political maturity needs time and the interest shown in the current civic elections is a good beginning. We need to know and understand the political process so that we can prepare ourselves for future political campaigns. Our community is not lacking of young, potential leaders who can be in the political arena. But we need to develop a culture of political involvement that can propel these people to victory. Filipinos are a political animal, judging from how we in the Philippines take politics to heart and unfortunately, to the extreme. In our adopted country, we have to harness that political instinct to our advantage. We hope that the interest that has started to emerge will develop into a full-blown political movement.
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