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Lately, in Vancouver's Chinese community,
a lot of people are talking about you,

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saying, "Even scientists
are running for office now!"

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What's the motivation behind this?

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What I want to say is that
the government workforce is aging,

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and a lot of the ways of working
are still very traditional.

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That includes our own company.

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Some of our older managers,

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the people in management — even now, they

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can rarely use AI or computers fluently,

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things like that. During the pandemic,

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when we held meetings on Teams or

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Google Meet online, a lot of them

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just couldn't get on.

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- And they needed training.
- Right.

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They had to get trained first,
and then every time they logged on,

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it was really chaotic —

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people kept dropping off and coming back.

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Could you introduce yourself for us?

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Sure!

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My name is Keenan Yang.

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Everyone calls me Keenan,
and my Chinese name is Yang Nan.

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I came to Canada in 2014

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as an international student.
At UBC, I studied

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hydrogeological engineering, so now

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I'm actually working in my field.

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I'm a full-time environmental engineer.

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Right now my work is mainly about

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environmental contamination
in land development,

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including water, soil and air.

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So I'm actually

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what everyone wanted to be
as a kid: a scientist.

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So in running for office, you want

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to bring new high-tech ideas

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and new workflows into city hall

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and the provincial government, right?

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Yes, that's one of them: efficiency.

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Bringing high technology and AI

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into the actual work we do,

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because it can really boost productivity.

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Of course, we can't do it
at the cost of jobs.

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So you came to Vancouver in 2014, right?

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As an international student.

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So, were there times you felt lonely,

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or nights when you couldn't sleep,

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all alone, trying to make it here —

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those kinds of hard times?

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Actually, from the moment I arrived,

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everyone I met was very friendly.

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The landlord of the first place I rented

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picked me up at the airport.

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Then he brought me straight here
and had me get my driver's licence,

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then drove me to the US to buy duty-free

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bedding, shoes, that kind of stuff.

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Do you have any special hobbies?

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My hobbies are pretty wide-ranging.
Some high-risk

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adventure sports,
like skydiving and flying planes.

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That's impressive!

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So would you say that

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you're kind of a tomboy at heart?

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Yes, I'm actually pretty...
I mean, I've got

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a woman's body with a man's heart —
Superman!

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Superwoman.

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- Superwoman.
- Supergirl.

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Surfing.

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I can't swim, but I love
every kind of water sport.

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That's pretty dangerous too.
If you can't swim

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and you fall in while surfing,

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you'd have no way to save yourself.

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I'm not afraid of water,
because when you surf,

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isn't your foot tied
to the board with a leash?

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So if you fall in,

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if you hold your breath for 60 seconds,
you'll come up one way or another.

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I think, by nature, you're

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someone who's really bold and daring.

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So you have the style and traits
of a reformer.

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There's a bit of that. Sometimes

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I can be unwilling to settle.
Right, like...

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liking what's new, liking to explore

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things in new fields.

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Right. Not one to play by the rules.

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And I really stick to what I believe in.

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I hope more people can be like me, too.

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So sometimes we actually hold

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in-person meetups for women

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or people our age.

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We share our experiences, and sometimes

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things people want to do but don't dare,

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we talk it over and do them together.

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For us women,

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especially young, accomplished women,

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what spirit would you like
to pass on to everyone?

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First of all, I want to set

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an example. And that example is...

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On Xiaohongshu (RedNote), I go by
"an ordinary person entering politics."

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Meaning that, honestly, before this

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I didn't have much political experience,

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and my family didn't have
any resources in this area either.

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But when you set out to do something,

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if you really work hard at it,

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you'll eventually move toward success.

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As for how far you get in this life

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on the road to success, who knows.

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But there have to be people who

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keep pushing forward in this direction,
one after another.

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So what I want to do is actively encourage

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Chinese Canadians to get into politics,
and actively encourage

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white-collar workers like me.
During this campaign,

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I've actually noticed a lot of problems.

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For one, a lot of voters in Richmond,

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when it comes to voting and elections,

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actually know nothing at all.

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Lately I've been educating many friends

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about all this,

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like the difference between civic
and provincial elections, why this year

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there's a provincial election,
how the Premier is chosen,

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how many people sit on city council,

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how they make decisions,

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can I vote separately in provincial
and civic elections? So many questions.

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they just don't know.

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Right, a lot of people don't know.

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So what do you think — for these people,

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going into politics, deep down,

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what is it they're really aiming for?

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In Canada, going into politics
has to come from the heart.

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If you're in it for personal gain,

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you basically won't get it here.

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So people in politics here basically all

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start from the heart. Meaning,

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I feel the people around me
really do have this need,

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so I'll stand up as their representative.

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The motive isn't money or self-interest;

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it's that I really want to do this.

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So if people oppose you, or you run into

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major difficulties,
have you ever given up,

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or felt discouraged inside?

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I do. Sometimes I feel
discouraged or upset,

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because around us, there really are

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a lot of opposing voices.
Or rather, it's not really

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opposition. It's a bit like your mom

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telling you it's all for your own good.

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There's a lot of that kind of talk
coming your way.

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People are really taking their own
insecurities and anxieties

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and basically grafting them onto you,

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projecting them onto you.

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But founding a party
and keeping it going —

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this is something we'll definitely
see through to the end.

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It's like you've already had

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a baby. You've already had a child.

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Even if you think
the child isn't good-looking,

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you can't exactly
stuff them back in, right?

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You still have to educate them well
and raise them.

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Because the moment
you decide to have a child,

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you're responsible for
their first 18 years.

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And the moment we founded this party,

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we became responsible for its growth
and for making it stronger.

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Right. Honestly, in the Chinese community,

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a lot of people...

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it's basically like when we were kids,

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right? Family and friends around us

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would put lots of their worries on us.

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But these worries aren't necessarily...

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Not necessarily bad.

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Right, they're not bad. But

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they don't really reflect

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your actual situation.

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Right. So we also need to learn

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how to set boundaries with them.

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That's why I also say, as a candidate,

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you need a really strong mindset.

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Mindset. Also, I once heard Jensen Huang

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say that resilience —

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your resilience — is what our times

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need most. Whatever industry you're in,

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you'll get bent.

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Right. That resilience is so important.

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Very true. Because in today's society,

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if you do nothing, you're never wrong;
the more you do, the more you're blamed.

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It's like, for example,

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say you're in a community group
and you say, "All right,

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I'll organize an event." When you propose

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an event,

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everyone in the group will chime in

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with different ideas: "Do it this way,"

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"Do it that way." But

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when you don't hold an event,
nobody else will either.

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Actually, I think you could also use

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some online strategies

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so that your videos,

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or your social media,
can spread a little faster.

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You'll also see that on my social media,

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I've been uploading videos
one after another.

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Early on, I talked it over with my team,
and we made

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40 topics, basically Canadian

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Politics 101 questions.

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For example, how much does an MLA earn?

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Can you run if you don't speak English?

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If you weren't born in Canada,

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or don't speak French,
can you become Premier?

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Questions like these that people
are curious about

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but don't really know the answers to.

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Fairly light topics.

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Right. Each episode is roughly one to

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two minutes, explaining
one of these questions.

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I'm gradually uploading these videos,

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and I can see the view counts
are actually decent

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on WeChat, Xiaohongshu (RedNote)
and YouTube.

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And now I'm also making

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English versions for
Instagram and Facebook.

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So I think the reach is decent.

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Even if I don't get elected this year,

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I think this thing I've done,
giving people

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a basic political education,
is my contribution too.

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That's great!