NDP MLA objects to Eby's campaign-trail announcement on Filipino cultural centre

A long-time sitting NDP MLA has come out against her own party leader’s campaign-trail announcement this week about the long-promised Filipino cultural centre.

Mable Elmore, currently running for her sixth-consecutive term representing the B.C. NDP in Vancouver-Kensington, told Postmedia she was frustrated that Premier David Eby pledged $15 million for a Filipino centre on Wednesday without tying it to a specific project.

“I appreciate the $15 million. … That’s a good number. But my recommendation to the central campaign and also to David — which they haven’t heeded — was we need to make a site-specific commitment.

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“My feeling is that it’s great to have that verbal commitment … but it’s also time for a significant, concrete announcement. So, I’m disappointed in that.”

Elmore declined this week to specify which of the three proposed Filipino cultural centres currently being advanced she wants to receive the funding, but she has publicly supported a new non-profit group launched last year called the Filipino Legacy Society.

Eby announced the funding commitment Wednesday with a photo opportunity at a Filipino restaurant in East Vancouver, appearing alongside the restaurant’s owner as well as Adrian Dix and Niki Sharma, two NDP candidates representing East Vancouver ridings with significant Filipino populations, and new NDP candidate for Vancouver-South Granville Lara Honrado, herself a member of the Filipino community who addressed the cameras in both Tagalog and English during the event.

Elmore, who has been trying to advance a cultural centre since 2009 when she became the first person of Filipino heritage elected to B.C.’s legislative assembly, did not appear at Wednesday’s gathering. But she told Postmedia she was frustrated a decision had not been finalized about a specific site before her party called the snap election.