Keenan Yang (杨楠) | Ep. 2: Looking Past the Surface | 2026 BC Election Interview
https://youtu.be/dAapUmpw0iU
(Transcript from the episode's English subtitles, translated from the Chinese interview; speakers not labelled. Host: Sarah Yu.)

[0:00] Highlights
Our next topic is what people these days call housing affordability, and the pressure of the cost of living. Do you have any good ideas for solving the current problems? Look past the surface to the root — the main thing is really the economy. Once the economy is doing well, all the problems — well, not all problems, but most problems can be solved.

[0:20] A scientist's platform
So, can you tell us about your platform? Because we'd also like to hear what an outstanding young scientist is thinking — and especially, what kind of new platform she's putting forward. My platform — is actually pretty grassroots. Most of it comes from my friends, residents in the community — things I gathered while visiting them, areas people generally want us to support. And I also have my own work experience and education, plus my own strengths, so I'd lean more toward carrying out certain policies once I'm able to take office. To give you an example, take

[0:55] Drug houses and injection sites
an issue most residents care about: the drug problem. For me and our party, it's definitely zero tolerance. Whether it's drug houses or drug injection sites, we're definitely zero tolerance — that's our platform. But zero tolerance doesn't mean it can't be touched at all. What we really advocate is education about drugs. We can educate high school students early, or people with addiction, or even people curious about drugs, or even those with pain or illness who need these drugs. We want to give them education ahead of time, and tell them about the types of drugs, precautions for using them, what to do if they become addicted, and if you actively want to quit, what resources to turn to.

[1:31] How the party decides
So, in the CanWest Party's platform, which policy do you think makes you feel the proudest and happiest — your real highlight? That's in line with our slogan, which is "When the people call, we answer." "When the people call, we answer." That's a really powerful line. Yes. We spent a long time thinking about how to phrase this line, because it had to be powerful in both Chinese and English. What is it in English? In English, it's "Your voice, my action." "You speak up, we act." And in Chinese, put more classically, it's "When the people call, we answer." So all of our platform and policies come from the people. What we really want to say is, if we're elected, then in the future, when issues come up for debate, we'll first run a poll in our riding — polling on what people are calling for most, and why, what the pros and cons of doing it are, and only then will we go and cast that all-important vote.

[2:23] Housing and the cost of living
Our next topic is what people these days call housing affordability, and the pressure of the cost of living. Actually, right now across Canada, probably 70 or 80 percent — most people are probably struggling. In this situation, do you have any good ideas for solving the current problems? Look past the surface to the root — the main thing is really the economy. Once the economy is doing well, all the problems — well, not all problems, but most problems can be solved. So take housing, the affordability problem — whether it's interest rates being too high, or mortgages being too high, or home prices being too high, or even property taxes being too high — all these problems, if our economy picks up, and everyone's income, their after-tax income, reaches a certain level, or their own business is doing well, and they have some extra income of their own, then it's really not a problem anymore. Because if you look at historical data, prices and the cost of living always go up, and home prices always go up, too. So we can't stop the historical trend, which is inflation, right? Every year, inflation is around 4% or more, so even if you do nothing at all, things will still go up.

[3:27] Incomes must outpace inflation
You can't have only prices going up while your wages and income don't. So in other words, if economic growth comes first, and your income always rises faster than inflation or the rising cost of living, then people really wouldn't worry.

[3:41] Tariffs and investment
Right. The main issue now is wages aren't rising; some are even out of work. Yes. For instance, I have a lot of friends who wanted to invest here from overseas or build factories, but once tariffs came up, they all backed off. Because going from overseas into Canada or into the US, the tariffs were already there to begin with. If tariffs between us and the US go up too, then where they build the factory doesn't matter anymore. And actually, there used to be a lot of people keen to invest who wanted to come to Canada — BC, Vancouver, even places like Richmond. A lot of things had already reached the planning stage. Some had even come to look at factory buildings and land. But the tariff issue really made them back off. And honestly, Canada has vast land and a sparse population. A lot of the land is really ideal for building factories.

[4:23] AI and jobs
If you take office, on the issue of employment, what's your stance? Say AI comes along — do we still need to protect the number or share of jobs our people have, or what? Is the employment rate also something you're working toward? The employment rate actually reflects how stable a society is. When unemployment is too high and employment too low, lots of social stability problems start to show up. Why do we have problems like shoplifting? It really comes down to jobs. But when high tech like AI comes along, you can't just reject it and not use it. All you can do is manage the speed and direction of its use. You can control the direction it's used in, and the people using it. My main idea is basically this: we can apply AI, and then have people do work above what AI does. In effect, you hand the basic work over to basic systems.

[5:21] Free training
Some people don't know how, so we need more training programs. And actually, the Canadian government has a lot of free ones like this. So really, we need to make these more accessible to everyone. That way, when AI comes in, you become someone who masters AI. Right.

[5:35] The Richmond-Steveston riding
This time, you're running around No. 3 Road, right? And south of Blundell. In the southwest corner of Richmond. Southwest corner. No. 3 Road, Blundell, and the area going south from there is the best, I think — the culture, the scenery. Do you think you have a strong chance of winning this time? I wouldn't say I have a strong chance, but the Richmond-Steveston riding is the riding whose result is most likely to surprise you. Because the MLA from last term isn't running this year, so effectively there's no incumbent seeking re-election. So everyone's platforms and policies, how much door-knocking they do, how voters lean — it's really hard to predict.

[6:13] Coffee-shop town halls
What are some ways you're hoping to get yourself out there? Right now, in Steveston, Richmond, at a local coffee shop, I've been holding community talks there. I get people in this community, through my friends, to bring along their neighbours. We have these roundtable-style sessions, where everyone talks openly. We've already held two of them, and both went pretty well. Of course, every kind of person and view, we respect them all. But we really do need to hear what people think. I can't hide away in an ivory tower and just develop on my own. So I listen to the views in support and the views against. Last Friday, about 12 people came. Thank you. We had a pretty happy chat, the two of us. Yes, yes, yes.