Scarborough-Rouge 补选系列之二 亚裔候选人Raymond Cho

 

 

 

我们此前已经介绍了此次省议员补选的三位主要候选人之一（安省新民主党候选人Neethan Shan）。另外两位主要候选人分别是安省自由党候选人Piragal Thiru，以及安省保守党候选人Raymond Cho。

We have already talked about one of the three major contestants in this provincial by-election (Neethan Shan of the NDP). There are two other major players -  Piragal Thiru of the Liberal Party and Raymond Cho of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

由于Piragal是一名新秀候选人，他不同于其他两名竞争对手，在此之前从未参加过政治职位竞选，因此有关他的资料并不多。Piragal Thiru在11岁时以难民身份移居加拿大，一直是自由党内部人士。这名现年37岁的泰米尔裔市府政策规划师就职于约克区政府，拥有约克大学公共政策学硕士学位。他负责指导约克区的多元化及包容性政策的制定，同时也是安省自由党的战略副总裁。

Not much can be found on candidate Piragal as he is a rookie and has not run for political office before, unlike his other 2 opponents. Piragal Thiru came to Canada as a refugee at age 11 and is a Liberal Party insider. He is 37 year old Tamil municipal policy planner who works for the York Region Government and holds a master’s degree from York University in public policy. He directs diversity and inclusion policy for York Region, and is also the party’s vice president of engagement.  

 

和其他选区的提名战一样，所有获得提名的候选人迅速发展了5000多名自由党新党员。在有1700名自由党忠诚党员参加的提名会议上，Thiru力压其他五名候选人，在第一轮投票中就赢得提名。

As with any other riding nominations, a total of over 5,000 Liberal party memberships were quickly signed up by all nominees for candidacy. Thiru emerged victorious on the first ballot from a field of six candidates at the nomination meeting when 1,700 party faithful showed up.

Raymond Cho出生于韩国，虽然他已年近八旬但却仍然精力充沛。Cho目前是代表第42选区Scarborough-Rouge River的多伦多市议员。在1991年首次当选市议员之前，他曾在天主教儿童援助协会、多伦多教育局以及士嘉堡教育局做过社工。

Raymond Cho was born in Korea and he is very energetic for someone close to 80 years old. Cho is currently a City Councillor in Toronto, representing Ward 42 Scarborough—Rouge River. Before being elected to Council in 1991, he worked as a social worker for the Catholic Children's Aid Society, the Toronto Board of Education, and the Scarborough Board of Education. 

Cho拥有多伦多大学的社会工作硕士学位和教育学博士学位。1988年，他曾在NDP旗下出战联邦大选，但却败北。2004年，声称自己被拒之于自由党候选人提名程序之外的Cho再次以独立候选人身份参选，但最终又铩羽而归。

Cho holds a master's degree in Social Work and Doctorate in Education from the University of Toronto. In 1988, he ran for the Federal election unsuccessfully under the NDP banner. Again, he ran for another Federal election and lost in 2004-this time as an Independent and claiming to have been shut out of the candidate nomination process by the Liberal Party. 

2005年，Cho希望代表自由党出战Scarborough-Rouge River选区的省议员补选，但自由党选区协会却援引其党章中的相关条款，未经竞争性提名程序就直接宣布另一名市议员包坚信为候选人。Cho最终未能参加是次补选，而包坚信则得以胜出。2014年，Cho代表保守党出战该选区省选，但最终只排名第三，得票率落后于包坚信和新民党候选人Neethan Shan。

In 2005, Cho wanted to be the Liberal candidate for Scarborough-Rouge River in the provincial by-election. However, the Liberal riding association used a clause of its constitution to declare another city councilor, Bas Balkissoon, as its candidate without a contested nomination process. Cho did not run in that by-election and Bas won it handily. In 2014, Cho came third as a Progress Conservative in the provincial by-election behind Bas and Neethan Shan of the NDP.

 

为了参加今年的补选，Cho邀请道格•福特担任其联合竞选经理，以期能从自由党手中夺取Scarborough-Rouge River选区。但是，在今年6月赢得保守党候选人资格的Cho却未能避免争议。Cho原本是四名竞逐保守党提名的候选人之一，但在其中两名候选人退选，另一名寻求提名的候选人Theo Antony又候选资格被拒而作废后，Cho才赢得提名。

For the by-election this year, Cho is teaming up with Doug Ford as his campaign co-manager to wrestle the riding away from the Liberals. Cho's acclaimation to the Progressive Conservative candidacy this June did not escape controversies. Cho was one of four candidates vying for the PC nomination, but he was acclaimed after two of them dropped out and one other person who was seeking the nomination, Theo Antony, had his candidacy “rejected as invalid".

由于在最近一次省选中各主要政党候选人得票率旗鼓相当，因此现在很难确定谁会笑到最后。选民的投票率将是决定胜者的关键。随着将于九月底之前举行的补选日益临近，政治草根队伍早就开始走街串巷，挨家挨户上门拉票。而低投票率将有利于保守党(Raymond Cho)。在这场即将来临的补选中，选民将依据党派界限和族裔界限分道而驰，这很可能又会是一场旗鼓相当的选战。

With the major party candidates showing results so close to each other during the last provincial election, it is very difficult to identify a clear winner. Voter turn-out will be the key that will determine the victor. With the by-election coming up before the end of September, the political ground troops are already hitting the streets and knocking on doors. A low voter turn-out will favour the Progressive Conservatives (Raymond Cho). In this upcoming election, voters will be divided along Party lines and heritage lines. This may turn out to be a very close election once again.