Asian Heritage Month

Click on the image to view

Asian Canadians have low voter turnout and are under-represented in the House of Commons.  Therefore, this event is organized in hopes of increasing the participation rate of Asian Canadians in voting and in seeking for public office in the Ottawa area. Ms. Anna Chiappa (Executive Director, Canadian Ethnocultural Council) will be the Master of Ceremonies for the event.  An overview of the electoral participation of Asian Canadians will be presented by Mr. Sanjay Mohanta.  Dr. Ted Hsu (MP for Kingston and the Islands) and Mr. Hoang Mai (MP for Brossard-La Prairie) will share their experience in getting elected Members of Parliament.

Dr. Ted Hsu (®}¥¿³³)  was born of Chinese parents, he grew up in Kingston and his extended family has been living there since 1964. Dr. Hsu graduated from Queen’s University in 1984 (B.Sc. Hons. Physics). He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University in 1989. Prior to entering politics, he worked as a researcher with 25 published papers in physics; as an equities trader and financial manager in Paris and Philadelphia for Banque Nationale de Paris; and as an executive director in the Tokyo office of Morgan Stanley. He then spent three years as a stay-at-home father, and went on to serve as the executive director of SWITCH, a Kingston not-for-profit association that promotes job creation and investment in the area of sustainable energy.

Mr. Hoang Mai was born of Vietnamese parents in Montreal in 1973, he grew up in Brossard, Québec. Mr. Mai studied science and economics before completing his Bachelor’s degree in law and a Master’s degree in international private law from the Université de Montréal in 1996. He then continued his training in international law in The Hague. In 1998 he joined an international law office which took him to work in Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong before returning to Montreal in 2001. Since 2002 he has been a notary in private practice. Sports are his passion. Mr. Mai regularly plays hockey. He was also a volunteer soccer coach to youth on the South Shore of Montreal and has taught scuba diving.

Presented by the Ottawa Asian Heritage Month Society and the Ottawa Public Library