|
|
 Mable Elmore, NDP MLA Vancouver-Kensington NDP MLA Mable Elmore claims she and her staff “mobilized” her community to look at climate change in the wake of Typhoon Ondoy, which struck the Philippines last year. “It was a broad call-out, but we made a specific initiative with the Filipino community,” Elmore told the small crowd at the June 22 RangiChangi Roots multicultural event at the Maple Grill on West Broadway. “So we invited all the community organizations. There are 150 in the Lower Mainland. There are a lot. It was a good first step in terms of participation, for the first time really raising these issues.” RangiChangi is a group dedicated to breaking down barriers ethnic communities face educating themselves on climate change. Elmore, who is part Filipina, told the Straight via cellphone that she mobilized the community to organize a forum on October 13, 2009, to which she invited Nonita Yap, a professor from the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph. The topic of discussion was how climate change will affect the Philippines. At the RangiChangi event, Elmore said that, as part of the NDP and the Philippine community in general, climate change is an issue of major importance. “It’s a central issue because we have a metabolic relationship with nature, with the environment,” Elmore said. “It’s part of us, we are part of nature. It’s something we have to consider in all our actions, also building a strong future economy in British Columbia.” |
