MP and Conservative Party leader candidate Michael Chong (Loving Sister/Yafang Shi 摄影:施雅芳)
(编者按:联邦保守党党领竞选尘埃落定,38岁的Andrew Scheer战胜一直在民意调查中领先的自由意志主义候选人Maxime Bernier,成为保守党新党领。他被认为是继承了前保守党领袖哈珀政治理念衣钵、更善于与民众沟通的“微笑的哈珀”。华裔保守党党领候选人庄文浩在13位最后参选的候选人中得票排第五位,他作为一名持进步社会理念的“红色保守党人”将在保守党新领袖团队中扮演什么样的角色,发挥什么样的影响力,值得观察。
以下是贴心姐妹网今年3月底围绕103动议对庄文浩的专访)
Loving Sister: We saw the division of the votes of your party on the Motion 103 and you voted "yes". If you are elected as the leader of the party, how are you going to address the issue at your party’s level and also at the societal level?
Michael Chong: I think it is very important to protect minorities/minority groups from the discrimination. The Chinese community knows what's like to go through the discrimination for many years in Canada. Chinese immigrants were treated as the second class citizens. Chinese immigrants were denied the full rights of the citizenship through 1948. We were excluded from the public participation for public office, for voting through the Chinese Exclusion Act. We fought against that discrimination and we won. Today the Chinese community is a full participant in the life of Canada.
There is another community though that facing discrimination and prejudice, the muslim community. There were millions of Canadians of muslim faith, 25 of them were shot in a place of worship in Quebec City two month ago. Six were dead, 19 were injured. So we have to defend this minority to practice religion of freedom and ensure that this minority is not discriminated against like we were so many decades ago. So that is why I supported motion 103 and I think it is important to denounce the anti-muslim discrimination and prejudice.
Loving Sister: The majority of your colleagues in your party voted "no" to the motion. How are you going to address the issue of division if you becomes the leader?
Michael Chong: It is a great question. I will address the issue just like the Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown addressed it. Patrick Brown showed a great deal of leadership on this issue. There was similar motion in front of Ontario Legislature several weeks ago and he immediately announced that as the Ontario PC party leader he will support the motion to condemn the muslimphobia and his caucus followed him. All of them supported that motion. So I will take the similar approach. My caucus will follow me and the decision I take. I think if you show leadership, people will follow. The fact that we do not have a permeant leader and we did not have that leadership in place. This is the reason why the majority of people voted against because the Ontario PC caucus is made of the same kind of members of the parliament as the Ontario conservative caucus. We represent the same ridings and same regions of the country. Most of our ridings are rural and agricultural ridings. That is the way we should approach to show the leadership. That will ensure that we deal the issue in a right way.
Loving Sister: If you become the leader, will you be confident that the issue will be dealt well?
Micheal Chong: Very confident. If Patrick Brown had not come forward with the position in favour of the motion condemning the Islamophobia, the entire Ontario PC caucus would vote against it. The fact that he came out earlier and said “I am going to vote for this" and his caucus follow his leadership. That is the only reason that that motion passed in the Ontario legislature.
(The Interview was conducted in Markham on March 29, 2017)
Related links:
Who is Andrew Scheer? His rise from House Speaker to Conservative leader
In Andrew Scheer, Conservatives elect Stephen Harper 2.0 – with a smile
Conservatives may come to regret ignoring Michael Chong
加拿大华裔议员庄文浩正式加入保守党领袖竞选
华裔联邦议员庄文浩有可能成为下任保守党党领袖吗?
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