SEWELL o@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2007-09-14 published
CAHOON,
Howard
Francis
Suddenly, at the Meaford Long Term Care Centre, on Wednesday,
September 12th, 2007. Howard Francis
CAHOON, of R.R.#1 Annan,
in his 89th year. Dearly beloved husband of the late Marjorie
CAHOON (née
HOOD.)
Beloved father of Leonard
CAHOON, of Annan,
Leone (Bob)
ALLAN,
Brenda
(Russel
SEWELL,) both of Meaford, Allan
(Linda) CAHOON of Thornbury, Roy
CAHOON of Annan and Lorne (Cheryl)
CAHOON of Collingwood. Grandfather of several grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. Brother of Justina
THOMPSON/THOMSON/TOMPSON/TOMSON of Owen Sound.
Will be missed by many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by his
parents Tom and Mary
CAHOON
(HUGHES,) his brother Joe
CAHOON,
his sisters Mary
HOOD, and Marguerite
HOBDAY, and his grand_son,
Greg ALLAN.
Friends may call at the Brian E. Wood Funeral Home,
250 - 14th Street West, Owen Sound, (519-376-7492) on Sunday
from 2: 00 - 4:00 and 7:00-9:00 p.m. A Funeral Mass for Howard
CAHOON will be celebrated at Saint Mary's Church, 554-15th St East,
Owen Sound, on Monday September 17th, 2007 at 10: 30 a.m. Interment
in Saint Michael's Cemetery, Irish Block. A Vigil service will
be held in the Funeral Home chapel on Sunday evening at 8: 30 p.m.
If so desired, the family would appreciate donations to the Heart
and Stroke Foundation, or the charity of your choice, as your
expression of sympathy.
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SEWELL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-11-19 published
Former councillor remembered as a trailblazer
By James RUSK,
Page
A13
Former
Toronto councillor Ying
HOPE, the first Chinese-Canadian
to be elected to the Toronto School Board and to city council,
has been remembered as a trailblazing politician who left behind,
in the words of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, "a wonderful legacy
of service."
The Prime Minister's words were read at Friday's funeral for
Mr. HOPE, who died last week at age 84. They also lauded Mr.
HOPE
for his "determined effort" to seek redress for the head tax
once imposed on Chinese immigrants and for the exclusionary laws
that prevented them from voting. These efforts by Mr.
HOPE and
other Chinese leaders were rewarded last year when the government
apologized for a half-century of mistreatment of Chinese-Canadians.
But it was his two-decade career in city politics where Mr.
HOPE,
who grew up as one of eight children in the family of a tailor
in Victoria, made his mark.
An engineer who had worked on the Avro Arrow and on the Dew Line,
Mr. HOPE was first elected to the school board in 1964, made
chair of the board in 1967, and won a seat on city council in
1969 as part of the Civic Action Group that included future mayors
David Crombie and Art Eggleton.
A Progressive Conservative, who remained active in the party
until he died, Mr.
HOPE ran provincially in 1967 and federally
in 1984.
He lost his council seat in 1985, won it back in a 1987 by-election,
but his career as an elected official ended in 1988 when he lost
his seat in that year's vote.
Until Mr. HOPE's election, the Chinese immigrant community had
not played a direct role in electoral politics in the city, as
Chinese families, traditionally leery of politics, preferred
to handle political problems through intermediaries such as Bill
Wen Sr., the owner of Sai Woo Restaurant.
Mr. HOPE's election led the way for Chinese-Canadians into the
mainstream of civic politics, where he was followed by councillors
like Gordon Chong and Denzil
MINNAN-
WONG.
"I agree with the view that Ying
HOPE was a pioneer. He was one
of the early politicians of Chinese descent who played politics
the way it always has been played with less reliance on a totally
Chinese base," said Susan ENG, former chair of the Police Service
Board.
Former
Toronto mayor John
SEWELL, who was a rookie councillor
with Mr. HOPE in Toronto in 1969, said that he was "somebody
I would call a moderate. He was not a vote reformers could count
on, but he was not part of the developer group headed by Fred
Beavis."
Mr. SEWELL described Mr.
HOPE's election in a ward that included
traditionally Anglo areas of the city such as the Annex as a
breakthrough in city politics. Mr.
HOPE did not win simply with
a big block of Chinese votes at his back.
"What was interesting was that he was not elected from the Chinese
part of the city, and was not referred to as an ethnic candidate.
… No one had a feeling that he was beholden anyone, and so he
was allowed to act as a normal politician," Mr.
SEWELL said.
"He was remarkable in his time. Ying
HOPE was one of those people
who established a beachhead," said Mr.
MINNAN-
WONG, who, like
Mr. HOPE and Mr.
CHONG, has been elected to council from wards
that do not have large Chinese-Canadian populations.
"Both Gordon and I weren't running as 'Chinese' candidates. We
were running as mainstream Canadians who had Chinese names,"
Mr. MINNAN-
WONG said.
Mr. MINNAN-
WONG, who represents Don Mills in council, said that
circumstances have changed since Mr.
HOPE was the pioneer.
"My father ran for council in 1976, and he wasn't successful.
Back then, it wasn't easy to run with a double-barrelled Chinese
name like MINNAN-
WONG in an exceedingly suburban area that didn't
have the same concentration of immigrant population you have
now," said Mr.
MINNAN-
WONG.
Don Mills now has enough immigrants that its population is similar
to rest of Toronto, and acceptance of multiculturalism makes
its easier for him to run.
Even so, Mr.
MINNAN-
WONG noted, in general, the Chinese community
is primarily interested in business, reluctant to participate
in politics, and despite Mr.
HOPE's example, still under-represented
at elected levels relative to its share of the population.
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