This might be a bit of a stretch, but bear with me. I don’t normally get involved in political affairs, but I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Barack Obama and Raymond Louie. If you live in and around the Vancouver area, you may have heard about Raymond Louie and how he wants to be Vancouver’s mayor.
Louie was once a member of the Coalition of Progressive Electors civic party (COPE), but he broke away in 2005, getting re-elected as a city councilor under the Vision Vancouver banner. Before Raymond can officially participate in the mayoral election later this year, he’ll have to beat out at least two other hopefuls from the Vision Vancouver party: independent parks board commissioner Al De Genova and NDP MLA Gregor Robertson..
So, why do I think that Raymond Louie and Barack Obama are similar?
I Don’t Want To Be Elected As…
When he was first elected in 2002, Raymond Louie said that he didn’t want to “just be the Chinese guy that sits on council.” He wanted to be elected based on his credentials and his beliefs. Vancouver has a large Chinese population, sure, but Louie wants to be recognized as more than “just the Chinese guy.” Why, then, has he decided to launch his mayoral campaign today at the Jade Dynasty Restaurant in Chinatown? He told the Vancouver Courier that the “event will pay homage to his roots and highlight the importance of Chinatown and its small businesses.” Right. You don’t want to emphasize your cultural and ethnic background, but you choose Chinatown to launch your campaign?
Barack Obama, whether he wants to admit it or not, is getting a fair bit of attention just because he happens to be black. If Obama was “just another white guy”, he may not be receiving as much press and praise as he is currently enjoying. Geraldine Ferraro openly expressed these sentiments recently and got all sorts of flack for doing so. At least Obama isn’t as hypocritical as Louie.
Not Minority Enough To Be Minority
I wouldn’t say that it makes him any less Chinese, per se, but Raymond Louie — to my knowledge — was born here. He is a second-generation immigrant and as a result, he probably has more “western” views than he has “traditional Chinese” views. (I know I do.) I’m not familiar enough with Louie to go any further than this, but just by the very nature of him getting involved in politics makes him a little (a lot?) different than most of the Chinese population in Vancouver. Barack Obama, in similar manner, has been charged with being “not black enough”, whatever that means.
Lack of Experience
Part of the reason why some people are hesitant to back Barack Obama is because they feel he is too “green”, lacking enough experience to lead a country. By contrast, people like John McCain and Hillary Clinton are more akin to “seasoned veterans” of the political game. Obama promises that he will bring change, but can he answer the phone? In much the same way, Raymond Louie might not be ready to run the city just yet. While former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell once said that Louie will be a “future mayor”, he’s actually endorsing De Genova in this election. Maybe next time?
What About Hillary Clinton?
Based on my comparison between Louie and Obama, I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether Al De Genova or Gregor Robertson should be equated to Hillary Clinton. Bring on the pantsuits?
Can we get a side by side shot of Michael Kwan and Ray Louie? Just wondering 😆
LOL! You’re right, the similarities are uncanny…maybe they’re related, like every other Chinese person the planet! 😉
Good idea. LoL
Yes, having met both, the similarities between Mike and Louie are notable.
Ever careful, I think the comparison to Obama is premature. We haven’t seen the substantive speechifying from Louie as we’ve seen from Obama. I do not mean that in terms of volume, because the American presidential race is of course, magnified a million times over. Obama’s currency is hope, and it is demonstrated by his oratory and his breaking away from the past. Louie doesn’t speak in council with great flourish, nor provide any substantive solutions other than provide a serviceable dissent to whatever Sullivan and the NPA put before council.
David Berner has written in The Province a glowing endorsement of Louie, but again, how he comports himself in the sort of primary within Vision will be something to watch.
Speaking of Berner, when he appeared with me on my interview program, I noted that it was ironic that Louie does not speak Chinese, but that Sam Sullivan does. This goes to your point about launching his campaign at a Chinese restaurant. Douglas Jung, the first Chinese MP back in the late 1950s, won Vancouver Centre largely without the backing of the Chinese community. Jung’s background was similar to Louie in that he had been born here, grew up here, and did not speak Chinese. Jung was spiteful of the Chinese community because they hadn’t supported him previously and saw him, for lack of a better phrase, a sellout, and in the following campaign went out of his way to ignore invitations from the Chinese community. Alex Louie had actually organised the then Chinese community in Chinatown overwhelmingly against Jung, and Jung was defeated by Jack Nicholson. So, Louie’s tacit nod to his roots is a knowing political move, giving him perhaps a bigger boost than say Robertson’s entry some weeks previous.
So, while you make an excellent prima facie case for the similarities between Louie and Obama, we’ll simply have to wait and see. At this point, you provide good advice to the campaign, Mike, that they should present Louie to the populace as a sort of Obama for Vancouver. Because yes, even here, this whole Obamamania resonates, and come November in the midst of a presidential campaign, Vancouverites may pine for something similar.
Somehow I knew that you’d chime in on this post, Joe. 🙂
Like I said, I’m not normally very much into the politics, but when I heard about Louie wanting to run for mayor and how he launched his campaign in Chinatown, I couldn’t help but draw the comparison.
On a side note, I guess I can see some similarities between Louie and me, but at least I can speak a little Chinese.