ward3brighton.ca

I had an interesting experience last Friday night with a family of recent Chinese immigrants in the ward. After explaining who I was and why I was there, with my campaign print material as a prop and using rudimentary English and hand gestures, we quickly established the family was ineligible to vote. The youngest daughter seemed to relish the opportunity to practice her English. She managed to convey that she was studying at UPEI. I was introduced to each — the mother and two daughters — and attempted to repeat back to them their very difficult to pronounce names.

Before long I was coaxed into their living room and directed to a fax machine which apparently had confounded them. At this point I wondered if they had really understood everything I had told them. Had they been expecting a fax repair man? After ten minutes of fiddling and referencing the manual, I had setup and tested the fax machine, and trained them in making copies, sending faxes, and phone calls — all amid much giggling and incomprehensible Chinese whispering behind my back.

In the middle of all this I received a call from one of my Handlers. He was quite amused as I explained my predicament as though nobody else was in the room: “I’m standing in a living room full of people who don’t speak English, fixing their fax machine”. Just more smiles, nods, and giggles.

As I left, I was presented, very ceremoniously, with a shiny package of Chinese Wrigley’s chewing gum. The other side of the duplex was occupied by another ineligible-to-vote immigrant family, but their English was excellent and they had no malfunctioning appliances, so I was happy to sit and chat with them in their living room.