(Image credit: Chris Bolin, Globe and Mail)
How did your family end up in Canada?
This past summer, I went to Tanzania for the first time in almost 40 years. I took my mom to the shore of Lake Victoria at Mwanza and I looked across and realized that if my parents had been born on the other side of that lake, instead of being immigrants to Canada in 1971, they would have been refugees coming to Canada in 1972.
My dad was working in a hotel in Arusha and, then as now, Arusha was used for a lot of international meetings, and my dad met a lot of Canadians. They used to get the Toronto Star delivered to them and they would give the newspaper to my dad when they were done with it. He saw the pictures of the opening of Toronto’s City Hall. He couldn’t understand how a building could be so tall yet round. So he said, ‘One day in my life I’m going to go see that City Hall.’ The point of the story is Dad came to Canada because he wanted to see a City Hall and, 38 years later, just before he passed away, he had an opportunity in a different City Hall to see his son become the mayor. That may sound like an extraordinary story, but it isn’t. It’s extraordinary in detail, but it’s a very ordinary story. Only in Canada.
Did you experience racism when you ran for mayor?
I had a little bit of vandalism at my campaign office, which happens on every campaign for every politician. There was much questioning about what the motivation was, and I was like, ‘If you’re going to be a stupid vandal, attach a note so I know what you’re doing.’ At that point, the feeling in the city was, ‘Geez, I hope these people were just jerks and not racist jerks.’ And I continue to believe they were just jerks who had a bad sense of timing. The most interesting thing happened after that incident. I received an anonymous donation for the maximum allowed by law [$5,000]. You don’t just get a maximum donation by credit card on the website with a note saying, ‘I hope this will go to help you. I’ve been watching you a while and what you stand for is what I stand for.’
Do I still experience racism? Yeah, I get it all the time. You learn to get a thick skin. You know that these are not representative of the vast majority of good, decent people. So you’ve got racists versus people saying, ‘how can I help refugees?’ It’s probably hyperbole to say it’s 100 to one on people who want to help versus the racists, but I don’t think that’s far off the number.
By ALLAN MAKI forthe Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail Update (Includes Correction)
Published Friday, Sep. 18, 2015 9:15PM EDT
Last updated Saturday, Sep. 19, 2015 11:56AM EDT
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