B14 April 2015
MetroVanIndependent.com
Lifestyle/Entertainment
Jeep-Pinoy Style: King of the Road.
Photo by Mayleen Valentino
Pinoy in Canada
By Yul Baritugo
The Okanagan Lake was simply
stunning while Skaha Lake offered all sorts
of activities from “see-doing” to water
boarding, canoeing, water toy rentals and
several other adrenaline-inducing sports
activities. It was our second summer
and we were “all fresh off the boat” as
our Vietnamese Canadian friends would
say. Driving from Vancouver, it was
traditional to stop at a look out just before
entering Penticton in what I thought was
another bucolic one-street town.
After entering Penticton and passing
by its small airport, we headed straight for
Walmart when lo and behold — a Manila
Jeepney — complete with its peculiar
gaudy regalia came honking by from out of
nowhere. I was completely floored. Some
bloody Filipino chap must have imported
it straight from Manila. A Manila Jeepney
is traditionally an old World War II vintage
military jeep transformed to become a
transport workhorse. In the Philippines, it
can usually accommodate up to 13 people
including the driver. We asked around
and it turned out the enterprising Filipino
owner was using the Jeepney to transport
revellers to a small beer house he owns
fronting Skaha beach.
Filipinos are indeed everywhere.
According to a book “A Brief History of Asia
in North America (published by Vancouver
Asian Heritage Month, 2001), when the
Spanish colonized the Philippines and
began their lucrative trade between China,
Hawaii, the Philippines and Mexico, (it was
called the “Manila – Acapulco Trade”), both
Chinese and Filipinos were sought out for
Statistics Canada projects that in
2017, when Canada celebrates its
150th anniversary, there would
be at least 540,000 Filipinos
settled in various provinces with
Canada’s expected total population hitting 34.5 million.
their skills as sailors and navigators aboard
Spanish galleons and other colonial ships.
This was back in 1565.
By the mid 1700’s, Filipinos began to
colonize the area now known as Louisiana
(specifically, the bayou of Barataria Bay,
thirty miles south of New Orleans). They
were referred to as ‘The Manilamen’. The
descendants of the Asian sailors of the
Spanish galleons became the oldest living
colony of Asians in North America.
In Canada, the first reported presence
of Filipinos was in 1931. There are no other
available extant records. Sometime in
1950, 10 Filipinos were supposed to have
been in Manitoba. According to author
Eleanor Laquian, a handful of doctors and
nurses under the United States Exchange
Visitors Program, came to Manitoba to
have their visas renewed from outside the
US as required. Both retired Vancouver
couple Aprodicio and Eleanor Laquian
wrote a book about 50 years of Filipino
migration to Canada.
From 1946 to 1964, the decade when
Filipinos were formally recognized as a
distinct ethnic minority, there were only
770 Filipinos in all of Canada, the couple’s
research showed.
But the numbers slowly changed in
the later part of the 60s as more and more
Filipino workers immigrated to Winnipeg
to work in the budding garment industry
there. They were mostly from Baguio City,
in northern Philippines. A wave of other
Filipino immigrants followed.
Statistics Canada projects that in
2017, when Canada celebrates its 150th
anniversary, there would be at least
540,000 Filipinos settled in various
provinces with Canada’s expected total
population hitting 34.5 million.
T he s tu dy, e ntitl e d Po pul ati o n
Projections of Visible Minority Groups,
Canada, Provinces and Regions, used as
its basis the 2001 census figure of a total
population of 30.6 million, of which at least
315,000 are Filipinos.
The same study projected that from the
at least 65,000 Filipinos in B.C. in 2001,the
Filipino population in the province will
grow to more than 123,000 in 2017, with
Vancouver’s share at more than 112,000.
The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) remains
home to the largest Filipino community in
Canada. It receives an average of 9,000
new immigrants every year. The Filipino
community in the Toronto area numbered
about 131, 680 in 2001 rising to 181, 330
or an increase of 35 percent in five years.
Fifteen Filipino newspapers service
the GTA with several radio programs and
TV shows anchored by Filipinos. Tagalog
is the 7th most spoken language in the
city of Toronto. There are smaller Filipino
populations in other municipalities such
as Mississauga, Scarborough, Markham,
Newmarket, and Vaughan.
The integration of Filipinos into the
Canadian milieu are sometimes so
complete that second generation Filipino
Canadians can often hide their cultural
roots so effectively even in open media
having lost the language and the accent.
Remember the Lexa Doig (Alexandra in
real life), she was the artificial intelligence
and avatar named Rommie in Gene
Roddenberry’s Andromeda, a television
sci-fi series. She’s the daughter of Gloria,
a Filipina and David Doig of Irish-Scottish
descent. She was born in Toronto.
Sisters Cassie and Alex Steele of
Degrassi, the Next Generation are also
second generation Filipino Canadians.
Cassie is a Filipino/British-Canadian
songwriter, singer and actress. She
often acts the character Manny Santos in
Degrassi. She had appeared in the MTV
movie “Super Sweet 16: The Movie,” “Relic
Hunter”, and even released a debut album
“How Much for Happy”.
Zuraidah Alman, formerly a CityTV news
anchor and general assignment reporter
and now national news anchor for Ontario
Global TV is also a Filipino Canadian.
In politics, aside from Vancouver MLA
Mable Elmore, other Filipino Canadian
politicians had slowly captured key
leadershi