–谭耕博士竞选国会议员提名新闻发布会成功举行
华社知名人士谭耕博士于4月27日就行的新闻发布会上正式宣布，将在新划的“当谷北”(Don Valley North)角逐自由党竞选国会议员提名。Don Valley North选区东起Victoria Park Rd. 西至Bayview，南以401公路为疆，北以Steels Ave为界。据统计，居住在此区的十万民众中，保守估计，有超过35%为华裔。谭耕博士将以这个区为他的竞选大本营，站出来为广大生活在加拿大的华人及各族裔的民众“争取获得平等，共同的发展机会”。
谭耕与专业人士协会理事们
新闻发布会气氛热烈，场面感人。陈国治厅长、多伦多华人联合会及全加华联的主要领导魏成义、 林立、陈丙丁、钟新生、林君等悉数出席。著名企业家陈凯、周建成、李洪；众多同乡会会长、社团负责人，专业人士协会会长杨静及全体理事，密市新天地活动中心主任冯宝丰，当谷北区自由党负责人和一大批谭耕的支持者，都来到会场为谭耕博士助威、加油！
包括众多社区知名及热心人士在内的谭耕竞选团队也同期亮相。著名老书法家谭超常专门为谭耕博土的新闻发布会书写大字条幅，“谭耕博土有学识有魄力关心民众，请大家投他一票”，并祝福谭耕“鹏程万里马到功成”。
谭耕与太太
谭耕博士于1998年获得多伦多大学提供全额奖学金从中国来加留学，在多伦多大学完成了化工及应用化学硕士和博士学位，毕业后曾经在位于安省北部Chalk River镇的加拿大国家原子能实验室工 作。近年以来，他在一电力公司核电化学部门担任资深科学家。谭耕就他的此次参选是这样给大家解释的：上世纪末，我们这一代技术移民，来到加拿大，通过十多年的努力，在生活上多已安定，华裔虽然人数众多，但在政治上还没有相应的影响力。出于紧迫感和使命感，要毅然站出来，放弃稳定的生活，勇敢地挑起这付重担，出来竞选，为广大新移民争取自己的权益。
强大的竞选团队
谭耕的竞选团队每个人都是积极投入，不遗余力，任劳任怨地从事助选工作。由于大家的齐心努力，谭耕博士的这次参选，已在加拿大华人参政史上迈出了坚实的一步，也为后继的华人参政者提供了经验，树立了榜样。
祝愿，谭耕博士的竞选之路平坦顺利，马到成功！(执笔 谢征)
附：谭耕发言稿
Dear Special Guests, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great honour to welcome you to attend this news release. I am so happy to see all of you and very grateful for your support.
16 years ago, I came to Canada as an international student to pursue my doctoral degree. At that time, my goal was to simply acquire the degree, and go back to where I’m from. That was where my career was and where my home was. However, during my studies, I started to learn and understand this country: its’ cultural diversity, democracy, social benefit, and vast natural resources. Isn’t this what everyone is hoping for? Don’t we all want a home in a country like this? So I made up my mind and settled in this country. The decision to settle here was easy, but of course not the process. Like many other new immigrants, I spent years becoming a true Canadian and being an integral part of this community. Now I have a relatively stable and fulfilling job, live in Toronto with my family, even fire up the barbecue sometimes in the backyard.
But this is just part of my story, not everything. Otherwise, I won’t be standing here now.
Ever since my young age, I had a desire and passion to help people. During my school years at UofT, I was elected the president of UTCSSA, which allowed me to use my ability to help many fellow Chinese students. I helped them pass through difficult stages at the beginning of their student lives. I organized various cultural activities to promote multiculturalism and harmony amongst different ethnics communities. From that time, I became an active volunteer in our Chinese community, and gradually grew to become a leader in community organizations.
Today, I am not only an accomplished professional, but also playing significant roles in community such as president or vice president, bala bala. You might think that I am a very “greedy” person who loves these fancy titles. Actually, no. Those titles are just a refection of my enthusiasm and strong commitment to the communities. I must admit that I do love to help people and really want to serve different communities as much as possible. For the past decade, I spent majority of my spare time volunteering, working for different community organizations. Through serving these organizations, I do find and realize that there are so many new immigrants in need of help and social assistance. They have faced lots of obstacles in learning the new language and learning Canadian culture. They want their skills and experiences to be recognized and put into a good use in this country. They look for equal opportunity in this society; they wish their children receive a good education, and have a fair chance to succeed. They like their culture and traditions to be included as part of the mosaic of Canadian culture.
Like many other community leaders, I tried my best to serve fellow immigrants. But, sometimes, I feel our voices were not loud enough to be heard by the policy makers, and sometimes even our demands were overlooked. To be honest, sometime I also feel quite frustrated. I want and like to do more and to help more. Because I have my own full time job, there’s a limited amount of time that I can spend on the community activities, I was spread too thin between my job and this innate passion to help others. So I started to consider that it is time for me, as a community leader, to stand up, and dedicate my full time responsibilities to represent fellow immigrants, to serve communities and to help make some changes in our society, and to have our voice heard in each level of the government.
My friends, the long-time community services have provided me precious opportunities to improve my leadership skills, my communication skills towards large groups of people, and skills to negotiate and handle complicated issues. All of these skills, I believe are crucial for a qualified representative for the people in this riding.
As new Canadians, when we choose Canada as our adapted home, we have to remind ourselves that despite our race, gender, and background, we have responsibilities to this new home country, and we also want to make our own contributions towards making Canada the best place in the world for our children.
Today, my friends, I officially announce that I am running for the Federal Liberal nomination for the riding of DVN. I fully understand that there will be lots of challenges in front of me. But I have no fear. I am confident. I want to quote a statement made by a Canadian politician who once said “don’t let them tell you it can’t be done”.
Please note that I am not campaigning by myself. Instead, I’m very lucky to have the tireless support of those that believe in me – my family, my friends, my campaign team, various community leaders and of course the media.
Ladies and gentlemen, with this announcement, I am seeking your support and I know I can count on your support，because you are not just supporting me, but also the immigrants and yourselves as Canadians. Please stand by me, campaign with me, all the way to win the nomination.
Thank you very much.
附：谭耕太太感言
各位来宾，各位朋友，大家好。
我明白，你们一定想知道，谭耕参选， 家人是否真的会支持他。我虽然是在联邦政府上班，但政治这个词似乎离我还是很远的。但因为他的参选，的确给我平静的家庭日常生活带来了巨大的变化，一下子，全家人都被卷进来了。说实在的，我真的希望我不会支持他。可是，我又真的做不到不支持他。为什么呢？
因为我明白，如果我不支持他，你们恐怕都不会同意的。
自从谭耕确定参选以来，我真的没有想到，在短短的几天时间里，就有几十个朋友出动加入竞选团队。而事实上，还有很多朋友的名字没有加到微信群里。大家帮着领登记表、发展党员、寻找义工、筹措竞选经费、宣传组织、分工合作、加油呐喊。每一天， 我们都被你们的付出和支持深深地感动着、激励着。
我明白，如果我不支持他，谭耕是不可能全心全意地投入竞选的，很多的事情是必须由我来做的。比如说，独自接送和辅导孩子、负责家务，许许多多有关竞选的大小事务，我都不得不投入十二分的激情在最短的时间内把它完成。像你们今天所看到的这个幻灯片-走近谭耕，就是我重新连上了家里的几台闲置的计算机，用了近两天的时间，从他以前一些参加的社会活动留下的图片资料及生活照中调集整理出来的。
在我起草“请支持谭耕”的文稿时，他告诉我，全加拿大有140万华人，却没有一个能说国语的国会议员。因此我明白，我必须支持他，如果有一天他成功了，他一定会替我们新移民，少数族裔说话的。因为我知道，他是个能说，也是个敢说和敢打抱不平的人。
有人说，一个成功的男人后面一定有一个了不起的女人在背后支持着。但是，我想说，如果有一天谭耕竞选成功了，那一定是因为有一群了不起的女人们和男人们在背后帮助着他，有更多的人在用实际行动支持着他。不记得是那一天，微信群里有几个人说，向谭太致敬。现在，我还是想用那天我给大家的回复来结束我今天的讲话，尊敬的来宾们，亲爱的朋友们，你们真的是我们要真心致敬和致谢的人！
谢谢大家！(照片取自微信群)
