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Your reason for entering politics

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goes back to an illness you had early on?

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Back then I got cancer:

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two different lymphomas. In my early 20s.

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When I heard the news, I was very scared.

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If I'd gotten this 30 years earlier,

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it meant certain death, no survival rate.
Life is short.

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I don't want to waste it
just making money.

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If the treatment weren't public,

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I might not have been able to afford it.

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and I might not be sitting

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here talking to you today.

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The NDP as a party,

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people do have different views about it.

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Yet this time you're still with the NDP.

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People often ask why we

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prefer the NDP. It's because

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we lean toward a more humane approach.

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For example, I really value education,

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and I really value health care.

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I really like public education
and public health care.

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I think for us ordinary folks,

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if health care becomes profit-driven,

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we can see how scary it is in the US.

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So I don't want to go in that direction.

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Your reason for entering politics

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goes back to an illness you had early on?

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In 2004, I got

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cancer: two different lymphomas.

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You were in your 20s?

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Just over 20. Early 20s.

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When I heard the news, I was very scared.

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Even before I'd talked with the doctor,

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there was already a sense of fear.

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Because no one wants to face death,

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especially that young.

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So back then I felt life is really short.

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Then, through the doctors and treatment,

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I felt the treatment was really good.

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It brought me back from death's door.

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The doctor explained to me back then

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that if I'd gotten this 30 years earlier,

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it meant certain death, no survival rate.

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Ten years earlier,
the treatment would've been very painful.

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But by the time I got it,

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medical technology was very advanced.

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So I'd say I was one of the lucky ones,

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able to get such good medical support.

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And I felt we

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should give more back to our community.

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Life is short. I don't want to waste it
just making money

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and not contributing to the community.

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You're grateful for Canadian health care.

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Very grateful for Canadian health care.

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Because if the treatment weren't public,

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I might not have been able to afford it.

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and I might not be sitting

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here talking to you today.

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So I'm grateful for this treatment,

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and that it got my family through
this difficult time.

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And it took a few years to recover.

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Five years. For treatment, we had

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I think six rounds of chemo,

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then four rounds of radiation,

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then five years of yearly checkups,

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checking every year if it had come back.

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After five years it hadn't come back,

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so I was officially in remission.

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I had beaten this disease.

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Of course, by the five-year mark,

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I'd already started doing youth services

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and counselling, hoping to do something

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meaningful for the community.

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I also felt that when I was young,

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being from a Chinese family,

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there was more focus on studying.

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But I felt that mentally,

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socially, and in terms of

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building self-confidence, it wasn't there.

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So I spent most of my time afterwards

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doing youth services and counselling,
helping others

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build what I didn't have back then.

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As you did this work,

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did the things you lacked back then

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gradually develop in you as well?

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Actually, back then my

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youth services were Richmond's largest,

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even though we had the fewest resources.

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But when we talked with the City,

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they felt, hey,

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you've done enough, stop doing so much.

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I was a bit frustrated.

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So I said, then I'll go into politics

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and change direction from a higher level.

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So you ran in a provincial election?

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Municipal. 2014 was a municipal election.

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Running for what?

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As an independent candidate.

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Independent candidate. Independent.
City councillor.

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Yes.

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Of course, I did poorly. No experience.

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Just a young guy with that kind of

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mindset.

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Actually, we feel that

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whether it's municipal or provincial,

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you need to prepare for the long haul.

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It's like running a marathon. At first

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you surely won't have much public support,

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but after a few years, right,

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it slowly builds up.

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Honestly, about being a city councillor,

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I really hope that everyone, whatever

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kind of representative, learns gradually

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from life experience and builds it up.

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I'm grateful I didn't win back then,

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because honestly, I was a bit

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wet behind the ears, just too young.

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After I lost, I spent

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about four years out in the community,

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at different community events,

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joining various non-profits,

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and doing all sorts of volunteer work.

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For example, I often helped at a place

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that fed the homeless, washing dishes

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and serving vulnerable people.

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I was also with our environmental groups,

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helping them with

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removing invasive species

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and picking up litter.

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So I was honoured, in 2020,

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to have the chance to run for the BC NDP
in the provincial election.

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After that provincial election,

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I jumped to a new level once again.

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Among your contributions was DeBeck

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Elementary's seismic funding.

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The government gave them a lot of money.
Right.

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Because back then at least half
of Richmond's elementary schools

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weren't...
Earthquake-safe.

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weren't earthquake-safe, or not up to par.

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As everyone knows, in Richmond

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we don't know when disaster will strike.

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With earthquakes, it's not whether

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one will happen, but when.

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As parents, who would want

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their kids at an unsafe school?

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We want them to leave home happy

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and come home safe. So on seismic safety,

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we put in a great deal of work.

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At the same time, look at our schools.

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Richmond Centre has many new immigrants,

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and many young families settled there.

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So back then, schools couldn't keep up;

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school spaces couldn't meet the need.

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So at the time, I worked with

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Cook Elementary School

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and also with Brighouse

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Elementary School.

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Both were expanded at the same time.

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One added 150 new spaces,

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the other 125. But these were all

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temporary solutions.

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So in 2023,

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I worked with the Richmond school district

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on how to get the province, the City

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and the school district to work together

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to find a suitable site in Richmond
to build a new elementary school.

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Pushing this through over four years
must have been very hard.

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Because government policy isn't like

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you propose it and it gets carried out.

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On the TCM exams, you also made

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a big contribution. Can you tell us

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specifically about the difficulties
and how you solved them?

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Many of my TCM friends told me

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they now faced a different problem:

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for TCM, their

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regulatory body

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now required all exams in English.

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Right.

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Not in Chinese. So many friends

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in the TCM community brought this to me.

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I found a chance to talk to our minister.

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His view was: isn't it just language?

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They didn't see what language involves.

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If Chinese won't do, learn English
and take the exam.

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That's when you need a candidate

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or an elected representative

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with a diverse background.

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I told everyone, it's not just language.

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Simply put, we'd like you

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to also translate lots of Chinese
into English,

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like 'heatiness' or catching a chill,

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how to tell heat from cold,

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and in Chinese medicine,

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all the different acupuncture points.

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Language is a culture. It can never

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be carried over completely, 100%.

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If we truly want TCM to be seen as

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something worth learning from,
worth carrying forward,

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a medical system,

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then we must understand

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its profound language and culture.

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We have to hold on to its roots,

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and not give them up. Once language
and culture are cut off,

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the development of TCM in North America

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will start to feel

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different in flavour. It'll deteriorate.

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So back then I also worked with

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various ministers, Minister Anne Kang,
Minister George Chow,

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and our Premier at the time, David Eby.

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Together, we placed North America's first

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public TCM degree at
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU).

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As a father, raising my two kids,

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one aged four, one five, my biggest hope

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is that when my life's journey is over,

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my kids grow up and, in all kinds of

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mainstream and diverse settings, can be

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on an equal footing with everyone,

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and not be discriminated against
because of their background.

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Hearing you talk about the TCM exam,

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I think your approach

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really managed to

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dig out the root of the problem.

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Let me put it this way. As much as I

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wanted to help, I was lucky back then

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to have a very good team.

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Because honestly, if an MLA

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decides not to do anything,

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they really can choose to work or not,

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and no one can do anything about it.

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But as I said, we're not in it for money.

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We're here to take care of this community.

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I just want my kids

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to grow up in a good community,

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to leave home happy and come home safe,

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My parents also live in the riding.

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I also hope they and their older friends

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can go out safely and come home happy.