Mississauga, Ontario
First woman to be elected
Opinion
Teodoro Alcuitas
Editor, PhilippineCanadianNews.Com (PCN.Com)
After a drought of 33 years with no representation, Filipinos have now a new Member of Parliament with the election of Rechie Valdez in the Mississauga-Streetsville riding of Ontario.
The Liberals will form a minority government, the same before the election was called . Liberals won 156
seats, Conservatives 21, BQ, 32, NDP 27, Greens 2 as of posting.
An entrepreneur with a marketing expertise and corporate banking experience, the mother of two is the first Filipino-Canadian woman to be elected since Dr. Rey Pagtakhan of Winnipeg, another Liberal, got elected in 1988. Pagtakhan served until 2004 when he was defeated and since then, no Filipino was elected.
Valdez, who was acclaimed by the Liberals got 48% of the votes (15,300) with her closest opponent Jasveen Rattan of the Conservatives at 33% (10,696) and the NDP’s Farina Hassan at 11% (3,633).
Valdez is the only successful candidate out of six Filipino-Canadians who run in this federal election – the largest number of aspirants.
Related reading:
Breaking: Liberals acclaim Rechie Valdez for Mississauga-Streetsville