Raymond Chan

Infobox CanadianMP
honorific-prefix = The Honourable
name = Raymond Chan
陳卓愉
honorific-suffix =
PC, MP


riding = Richmond
parliament = Canadian
term_start = 2004 federal election
term_end =
predecessor = Joe Peschisolido
successor =
term_start2 = 1993
term_end2 = 2000
predecessor2 = Tom Siddon
successor2 = Joe Peschisolido
birth_date = birth date and age|1951|10|25
birth_place = Hong Kong
death_date =
death_place =
party = Liberal
spouse = divorced
residence = Richmond, British Columbia
profession = Engineer
religion = Mennonite Brethren
footnotes =

Raymond Chan, PC, MP (zh-tp|t=陳卓愉|p=Chén Zhuōyú; Jyutping: Can4 Ceok3 Jyu4), (b. 1951) is the first Chinese Canadian to be appointed to the Cabinet of Canada. A member of the Liberal Party of Canada, Chan was elected to Parliament in the 1993 federal election, defeating then Defence Minister Tom Siddon in the riding of Richmond, British Columbia. Chan is the third Chinese Canadian to be elected to Parliament, after Douglas Jung, who secured a seat in 1957, and Art Lee in 1974.

Early life

Raymond Chan was born in Hong Kong on October 25 1951. He emigrated to Canada in 1969, two years after Canada liberalized its immigration policy. He received a B.A.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1977. From 1977 to 1993, he worked as an engineer for TRIUMF, a particle accelerator laboratory at UBC.Though he grew up an atheist, he converted to evangelical Christianity after debates with Christian friends and prayer. [http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/bc.cgi?bc/bccn/1199/welcome] He attends services with the Chinese Mennonite Brethren church.

Chan has a son named Justun and a daughter named Christina.

Political career

Chan joined the Liberal Party of Canada in 1991, and was elected to Parliament in the 1993 election, defeating Defence Minister Tom Siddon in the riding of Richmond, British Columbia. Chan secured the nomination win over future cabinet colleague Herb Dhaliwal, who subsequently chose to run in the adjacent Vancouver South riding. He was then appointed by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as the Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific Region for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He served in this position from 1993 to 2000.

He was defeated in the 2000 election by Joe Peschisolido of the Canadian Alliance. After Peschisolido crossed the floor to the Liberal Party, Chan battled Peschisolido for the Liberal Party's nomination, and won it after a fiercely-contested race.

Chan was returned to Parliament in the 2004 election. He was subsequently appointed to the cabinet by Prime Minister Paul Martin as the Minister of State (Multiculturalism) for the Department of Heritage.

The Head Tax redress controversy

As an ethnic Chinese, and being a cabinet minister of the multiculturalism portfolio, he was assigned by the government to negotiate with the Chinese community on redressing the Head Tax, a fee imposed to Chinese entering Canada from 1885 to 1923. Chan, along with the ruling Liberals, did not initially support apologizing because it, on the advise of their legal experts, felt that the government would expose itself to unlimited liability. The Liberal government has adopted the position of "no apology, no compensation" as the basis of negotiation with the members of the Chinese Canadian community.

To the surprise of many, on November 17, 2005, Chan announced that he had reached an agreement with a group calling itself the National Congress of Chinese Canadians to pay out $12.5 million for the creation of a new non-profit foundation to educate Canadians about anti-Chinese discrimination. No money would be given to individuals who had paid the tax, and there was a pre-condition of "no apology" by the government.

Among other things, the deal had been negotiated without the participation of a number of the most active groups across Canada, including the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) which criticized the deal as soon as it was announced. The proposal also claimed support of 11 Chinese-Canadian groups, some of which whose names had been used without permission; several other groups listed did not even exist. It was also later revealed that Chan had negotiated chiefly with community groups who held no family ties to the issue, in order to claim that the entire Chinese Chinese community was willing to accept "no apology, [and] no [individual or collective] compensation."

When the Department of Heritage announced its preliminary agreement on November 24, 2005, funding was reduced from $12.5 million to $2.5 million. The Liberal Government tabled bill C-333 (as a private member's bill) to implement the deal but it died when the government lost a motion of non-confidence.

During the 2006 federal election campaign, redressing the head tax became an emotional issue in parts of the Chinese-Canadian community. The three other major Canadian federal parties (Bloc Québécois, Conservative Party of Canada, New Democratic Party) all pledged to issue an official apology for the Head Tax in the Parliament of Canada and work with the Chinese Canadian community to find common ground. During the campaign, in an action some see as a response to that of the other parties, the Liberal Party partially changed its position.

Before ultimately losing the federal election, the out-going Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Paul Martin issued a half-hearted personal apology on a Chinese language radio program. However, he was quickly criticized by the Chinese Canadian community for not issuing the apology in Parliament and, then, trying to dismiss it completely in the English-speaking media on the very same day. [http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/ChineseHeadTaxissuesGimWongsRideforRedress/_archives/2005] Several Liberal candidates with significant Chinese-Canadian populations in their ridings, including Chan, also made attempts to change their positions in the midst of the 2006 election campaign.

The Christian fundamentalist controversy

The Richmond riding was also noteworthy for its abundance of registered third party campaigns. According to Elections Canada, the Richmond riding was tops in the country in this and any other federal election to date. (see reference below) While some were in opposition to Raymond Chan, most were against his primary rival, the Conservative Party candidate, Darrel Reid. Reid, a noted social conservative and Christian fundamentalist, was attacked for his stated position on stem cell research and treatment, gay rights issues, creationism and the “hidden agenda” issues which plague the Conservative Party. These third party campaigns may have contributed to Reid losing the election to Chan. Despite the controversy, or perhaps because of it, Chan was re-elected in the 2006 federal election.

External links

* [http://www.raymondchan.ca Raymond Chan's homepage]
* [http://www.howdtheyvote.ca/member.php?id=62 How'd They Vote?: Raymond Chan's voting history and quotes]
* [http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=thirdparties39&dir=thi/tie&lang=e&textonly=false List of the registered Richmond riding third party campaigns in the 2006 federal election.]
* [http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Files/Parliamentarian.aspx?Item=f8b7c2fc-bea2-4dfe-a047-08178d28b8bb&Language=E&Section=FederalExperience Parliament Webpage]