Is clock ticking on Vancouver's era of 'Scottish' mayors?

This reminds me of how the board of directors at the student newspaper where I worked in the mid-'90s happened to be all-Irish: they all had surnames like Rowan, Rowley, Roantree, Conley, O'Donnell, McGuire. (I can't remember if Ferris was an actual board member or simply an active volunteer; he and I stayed up all night -- literally -- to put the first issue together at the beginning of the school year.)

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http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/thesearch/archive/2011/04/05/is-clock-ticking-on-vancouver-s-era-of-scottish-mayors.aspx
 
By Douglas Todd
5 Apr 2011

In the city of Vancouver, people of Scottish heritage are political winners.

The last three mayors of Vancouver - Gregor Robertson, Sam Sullivan and Larry Campbell - all value their rich Scottish ancestries.

Even prior to the election of these three kilt-loving men, the number of Vancouver mayors who have had Scottish surnames has proved impressive. Three of the past nine mayors of Vancouver, for instance, have been Campbells, which means "crooked mouth" in Gaelic. They include Gordon Campbell and Tom Campbell.

Vancouver's first mayor, Malcolm McLean, was born in Tiree, Scotland. The city went on to elect a host of mayors with surnames long associated, at least in part, with Scotland, including Malcolm McBeath, Louis Taylor, Gerry McGeer, Tom Alsbury (born in Edinburgh), George Miller, Fred Hume, Charles Thompson and William Rathie.

This West Coast metropolis, in addition, has had far more than its normal share of those with a combination of Scottish, or Welsh-Irish, surnames, such as Philip Owen, William Owen, Art Phillips, William McGuigan and Charles Jones. (See John Mackie's lively list of Vancouver mayors.)

Indeed, with the addition of a few mayors with English-Norman surnames (such as Michael Harcourt and Charles Tisdal), the city of Vancouver has almost entirely lacked mayors of non-British ancestry in its 125 years.

The one well-known exception is mayor David Oppenheimer (1888-1891), who had Jewish-German roots.

Where have been the Italian, Scandinavian or French mayors -since up until the 1970s people of this ethnicity, along with Germans, together accounted for almost 15 per cent of the city's residents?

And - the question that's most obvious in this age of high Asian immigration - why has there been no Vancouver mayor of Chinese extraction?

That time could well be coming. However, it shouldn't be too surprising that the city of Vancouver has had a long list of mayors (almost all of whom were born in Canada) with predominantly Gaelic-Celtic surnames.

As Vancouver public librarian Todd Wong says, B.C. and Vancouver have often been mischaracterized as an historically "English" city. But its colonialist identity actually tends to be Scottish.

Explorers Simon Fraser and Alexander McKenzie had Scottish backgrounds, as did the region's first governor, James Douglas. B.C.'s infamous "Hangin' Judge," Matthew Begbie, was Scottish. So was legendary broadcaster Jack Webster.

The Scots began flooding to Canada and Vancouver in the 1800s and early 1900s "to get away from the English caste system," says Wong, founder of the famous Gung Haggis Fat Choy festival, which blends Chinese New Year with Scotland's Robbie Burns Day.

The Scots are the largely unrecognized ethnic backbone of Canada, says Wong (right, in red vest). Scottish people, along with Chinese, were B.C.'s original "pioneers."

Along with Scots, Chinese migrants came to work on the national railroad, but Wong says when it was finished in the late 1800s, many Chinese felt pressured to return to their homeland.

Immigration patterns have been turned upside down in the past 40 years, however.

Even though the English language remains most common in the city, the 2006 census showed the first language of more than 21 per cent of Vancouver's residents is now Chinese.

Indeed, more than 237,000 Vancouver residents now claim an Asian origin, followed by 166,000 who say they're rooted in Britain and 160,000 from other parts of Europe. (Figures unavailable for those with Scottish ancestry.)

Wong, a fifth-generation British Columbian, is among those who believe it will be only a matter of time until the city of Vancouver has a mayor who is not of Scottish/British descent.

B.C., in fact, has already had several Chinese mayors.

As far back as the 1960s, Kamloops had the first Chinese mayor in North America -Peter Wing. And Victoria residents elected ethnic Chinese mayor Alan Lowe on three occasions, until he retired in 2008.

Even though fear of racist responses have held back many ethnic Chinese from running for mayor in early decades, Wong contends those days are over.

The current city council has three ethnic Chinese councillors - trade union official Raymond Louie, B.C. Hydro worker George Chow and psychologist Kerry Jang (left), all of the Vision Vancouver party.

Louie came in second to Robertson when they competed for the opportunity to run as Vision's mayoral candidate. Wong notes how Larry Campbell once described Louie as a future mayor.

Even though Wong and many other ethnic Asians have been happy to vote for mayors with Scottish/British surnames, he looks forward to the day when he could cast his ballot for a Chinese candidate.

Chinese immigrants from East Asia, and their offspring, aren't as shy as their foreparents were about running for political office, says Wong. "They see it as an instant way to get credibility in Canada."

As a result, Wong believes the election of the city's first ethnic Asian, or Chinese, mayor, is just around the corner. "It will happen, in its own time."

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For a follow-up video click here: http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/thesearch/archive/2011/04/06/video-does-a-scottish-cabal-control-the-mayor-s-chair-in-vancouver.aspx


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