As you may or may not know,
British Columbia is having a provincial election on May 17, 2005. Campaigning is well under way, and each party is eager to get their supporters out to vote.
In either case, this morning I get a phone call. It's a Chinese guy on the phone, asking in Chinese, to speak with my dad. I assume this guy must be one of my parent's friends or relatives from Hong Kong or China because no one else that calls speaks in Chinese. I notice that this guy's Chinese sounds really funny, it sounds like a mix of Cantonese and Mandrain (the two major Chinese dialects, I speak Cantonese). Anyways, I tell him my dad's not home, and he asks for my mom, and I tell him she's not home either. He then asks for me. What the? None of my parent's friends or family from overseas knows my name.
So he starts talking really quickly in his wierd dialect, and I'm having a hard time following since I'm not a native Chinese speaker. I was able to gather that he was talking about the election, and he was asking if I'd vote for a certain party, and if I could come out to help their party office during the weekdays. I couldn't figure out what party he was trying to promote because I don't know the Chinese word for "New Democrats" or "Liberals". I convey to him that I'm not available to help during the weekdays.
He quickly blabs something else, and he's trying to pressure me to do something, but I'm lost in translation at this point. I tell him in Chinese that I don't understand what he's saying. He heard that and thought that I said, "I don't know who you are". So he does his whole introduction of who he is, and what party he is again in Chinese. At this point, I'm getting ticked off because this is going no where. He then tries to make the final sell, he asks if he can count on me voting for his candidate on May 17th, 2005. I say yes just to get him off my back. He then asks do you know where to go to vote. I say yes, again trying to end this. He then says, okay, where do you go to vote? Gah, he wants the address?! I quickly say, I don't know the Chinese name of the address, but I know where to go. He then goes on for a bit more about the directions to my voting station.
I'm frustrated at this point, and ask if he speaks English. He says no, and after some more blabbing the conversation is over.
In either case, I'm a little ticked off by this experience, because it looks like politicians are targetting voters by race.
I'm guessing they just looked through the phonebooks, and saw.... oooo... last name Chan, they must speak only Chinese, and only this wierd Chinese dialect, lets get an asian guy to call up the Chan's, because you know, they'll be SO impressed that we took the time and effort to get an asian guy to call them up..... we're bound to get their vote! This is how we're going to win the ethnic vote, we're so brilliant.
There is no doubt in my mind this is what they're doing. How do I know? Well, I have a hard time believing that they're going to get this Chinese guy calling up Mr. Smith, and speaking to him in Chinese.
Anyways, I think it's stupid that the guy on the phone didn't even know how to speak English. NOT ALL CHINESE PEOPLE ARE FLUENT IN ALL CHINESE DIALECTS. Stop racially profiling us. I am not a brainless robot who will automatically vote for your party because you get some asian guy to talk to me on the phone. I am a political independent, I vote based on party platforms, I do not vote based on what other members of my ethnic race will vote for. I am not part of a ethnic voting bloc. I am not a statistic. Do not forget that I am firstly a Canadian citizen.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened. A few years ago, these two Chinese women knock on my door. They start talking in Mandarin (a dialect that I don't speak), and I figured out that they were Jehovah Witnesses. They gave me pamplets in Chinese which I couldn't read. I told them I didn't understand what they were saying, and if they could speak in English. They didn't speak English. I assume the Jehovah Witnesses sent them to our house based on racial factors. I have a hard time believing that white people are having Mandarin speaking Jehovah Witnesses showing up at the door and trying to convert white infidels using a foreign language.
STOP TARGETTING PEOPLE BASED ON RACE!
