Sunday, June 30, 2019 ~ VICTORIA
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
On Saturday afternoon June 29, Premier BC made his way around Chinatown in downtown Victoria.
“Some of the clubs we’re visiting today are older than Canada itself,” said Premier John Horgan at the start of his tour of the gathering spots of several Chinese clubs in Chinatown.
Accompanied by George Chow, MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview and Minister of State for Trade, the entourage of Premier, MLAs and the Victoria-based Chinese community wended its way to at least six spots along Fisgard Street, many with long rises of stairs in old buildings.
Outdoors it was sunny and warm. The culture and history indoors was deep and rich. Ornate artifacts and decor stood proud in basic rooms that have seen countless meetings and gatherings.
At each stop in the second-oldest Chinatown in BC, Horgan would give a speech, accept a framed photo, or simply glad-hand around the room with members of the local Chinese community. There was even time for a playing a bit of the tile-based game of mahjong.
The idea of a province-wide Chinese museum is a way to organize and promote the Chinese history found in municipal museums around BC. “It was a critical commitment in our campaign platform,” says Horgan. “We put George on it right away.” There was a committee and online consultation to uncover a broad consensus on this “untold part of our rich Canadian history,” Horgan told media on the sidewalk outside shops and restaurants. The final program will be rolled out in a few months’s time.
The museum hub will be based in Vancouver with ‘spokes’ to Victoria’s Chinatown as well as other areas on the island and in the interior including Nanaimo, Revelstoke, Nelson, and Kamloops. “It’s very exciting to connect all the museums,” said Chow. Locally, input about including the small regional museums was provided by Sooke Region Museum Director Lee Boyko; early development in Sooke included Chinese workers at logging camps and building the Kapoor Tunnel that directs water from Sooke into the westshore and Victoria.
Minister of Education Rob Fleming and Mitzi Dean, MLA (Esquimalt-Metchosin) who is Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity joined Premier Horgan on his tour on Saturday afternoon.
The tour included a visit to the Chinese Public School on Fisgard, and having tea and snacks with the local community members at each stop. Lots of photo-taking by the big crowd, the composition of which kept changing as each stop on the tour visited a different spot.