Election history: First Filipino and Indigenous politicians elected in Burnaby

Saturday was an historic election night in Burnaby for diversity in municipal government.

Maita Santiago is the first Filipino person to be elected to council, not just in Burnaby but in Metro Vancouver. School board trustee-elect Mikelle Sasakamoose is the first Indigenous person to be elected in Burnaby in 130 years, as first reported by Burnaby Now.

Santiago told the Beacon that she is still processing her Saturday night victory.

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“I really stepped forward as a candidate because I’ve been raising my family and … genuinely loving Burnaby thinking we’ve been [going] in the right direction, and [I’m] really appreciative of the work that my party, the BCA, had been doing. Then I stepped forward because I wanted to be a part of continuing that,” she told the Beacon.

Santiago and her family immigrated to Canada from the Philippines in 1977, and their first home was in Burnaby. Her family eventually moved around to Vancouver and Surrey, but Santiago said they would always spend holidays and family time at a relative’s home in Burnaby.

“My family has deep roots in this city,” she said.

Santiago returned back to the Philippines for several years, working as an advocate for migrant groups and then settled back in Burnaby in 2008, when she decided to have a family of her own.

This isn’t her first go at politics. She first ran for council in 1993 in Vancouver with the Coalition for Progressive Electors (COPE).

“When I [ran], I was the first Filipino person to run for any elected office in BC,” she said. “So I look at … gaining a seat in this election as sort of part of that. … My campaign didn’t just start three or four months ago, but really it was like decades in the making.”

Santiago says that she recognizes there’s still a lot of work to foster more civic engagement for Burnaby’s diverse population, given Saturday’s voter turnout was at a dismal 19.78%.

“I am going to certainly do everything that I can to make sure that whatever systemic barriers are there presenting people from stepping up as candidates, even just participating, [that] the civic engagement process is addressed and that we make room and space for underrepresented folks.”

Sasakamoose said that she’s committed to doing the same when it comes to her role on the school board.

“Representation matters and it’s not just a cliche, it really does matter,” she told the Beacon.

“As a person from a marginalized community, I’ve taken a lot of time to reach out and meet people from other marginalized communities, and not just people of colour, people from all different kinds of marginalized communities.”

Although she is still riding a wave of excitement from being elected on Saturday, Sasakamoose is also focusing on the importance of her new role “so that I don’t let my community down, so that I don’t let all the people who I promised to support and create space for down, because these… are responsibilities that I think are important [and] I take really seriously.”

Sasakamoose is the first Indigenous person elected in the city’s municipal history as a colonial government, she explained.

“The Tsleil-Waututh Musqueam, the Squamish, and the Kwikwetlem have implemented traditional and governance systems on these lands since time immemorial. I’m the first Indigenous person elected in a colonial government [in Burnaby].”

She is a member of the Ahatahkakoop Cree Nation and is also Tk’emlups te Secwepemc and Syilx. She grew up on a reserve near Kamloops and lived very close to her extended family, including her grandparents and great-grandparents. It was here that she started feeling inspired by political involvement and activism.

“Many of my family was and still is very involved in the governance of our community and fighting for the rights of Indigenous people. And so I’ve always been inspired by so many different people in my family and my community,” she said.

“We tried to help people, we tried to make things better for our community. We didn’t sit around and complain. We tried to do our best to become involved and engaged in the world around us and that’s just the way I was raised.”

Now, Sasakamoose is ready to get to work as a school trustee where she wants to create space for diverse voices and perspectives in Burnaby.

“I feel like being an Indigenous person, I cannot just see where I need to create space for other Indigenous people,” she said.

“…I can relate to other marginalized communities, I can empathize with them … and I’m really hoping to bring that voice to influence processes where we can create space for them to speak for themselves.”