By Postmedia News

Like most Filipinos in Canada, Mable Elmore loves her pancit noodles, enjoys a party and is known to belt out the occasional karaoke song.
Last Sunday, the community stalwart and MLA for Vancouver-Kensington, was among the thousands who gathered at North Vancouver’s Waterfront Park to showcase these and other traits that symbolize to an extent B.C.’s Filipino community.
“As the daughter of a Filipino nurse who immigrated to Canada in the 1960s, I’ve grown up identifying strongly with the Filipino culture,” said Elmore, the first elected representative of Filipino descent in B.C.’s legislature.
“But while these traits symbolize to an extent the Filipino community, you need to listen to more than the songs and see beyond the hospitable smiles to genuinely understand the struggles of the Filipino people,” said Elmore.
At the Philippine Day Festival which celebrated the 113th anniversary of Asia’s first republic, thousands gathered in a fiesta atmosphere to acknowledge the struggles in their homeland and pay tribute to the achievements of the Filipino community in B.C.
While this daylong event is the biggest gathering of Filipinos in the Lower Mainland, several community congregations were held earlier in Richmond, Vancouver, New Westminster and Victoria to celebrate the 113th Philippine Independence Day.
B.C. is home to Canada’s second largest Filipino population and most of the province’s estimated 100,000 Filipinos live in the Lower Mainland. While early immigrants were composed mostly of professionals or others who came under the Family Reunification Class, many began coming as caregivers and more recently, as Temporary Foreign Workers.
There are an estimated 150 Filipino-Canadian community groups in B.C. and over 1,000 such ethnic associations across Canada organized around work, sports and the Catholic Church.
For Elmore, the Filipino capacity to organize and advocate for their interests is a skill that has propelled the community in Canada’s multicultural mosaic.
“Young Filipinos who grew up or were born here are taking on leadership roles and becoming involved in social issues and civic groups are organizing creative activities that contribute to Canada’s multicultural mosaic and more Filipinos are making inroads into electoral politics.
In my two years as an MLA, I’ve been fortunate to meet many Filipinos from across the province and while their stories are diverse, they face common challenges.
Issues such as the recognition of foreign credentials, the rights and welfare of migrant workers and the desire of the younger generation to learn more about their heritage are ones often told to me,” said Elmore.
“At the same time though, many Filipinos are hopeful that their young community is increasingly becoming more adept at recognizing and addressing the barriers they face,” she added.
In his message to Filipinos in Canada and around the world, Philippine secretary of foreign affairs, Albert F. Del Rosario stressed that his government’s goal is “to create jobs at home so that there will be no need to look for employment abroad.”
It is estimated that around 8.6 million to 11 million Filipinos or about 11 per cent of the total population of the Philippines work overseas as the Southeast Asian nation swelters in economic turmoil.
“The call to free the country from poverty is not just for the government, but for every Filipino wherever they are,” said Del Rosario.
“One of our heroes said, there is no love greater and more sublime than the love for one’s native country. Such love is neither diminished by distance nor divided by longitudes and latitudes. We are Filipinos, whether living or working abroad, we all profess love to our country.”
For Janice Jimenez, that means celebrating this Philippine Independence Day with food, family and fun.
“To me being Filipino is being that melting pot of cultural influences, embracing everything and everyone that has influenced me, whether tragic or triumph. It makes me who I am today”.
“Being Filipino is being a family,” said the 29-year-old Vancouver-based account executive.