Grace Chan excels

Canadians are generally known to be loyal, specially when it comes to banking and dealing with financial institutions. A new survey showed that 44 percent of Canadians still bank at the institution where they opened their first account (at the average age of 13). The people of Quebec are even more loyal, with over 59 percent who never changed their banks. According to the books, 45 percent of Canadians opened bank accounts to deposit earnings.

And when it comes to exercise, Macleans reported that people who are active physically throughout their lives have a 60 percent lower chance of developing coronary disease compared to completely non-active people. Those who started exercising for the first time after age 40 still have a 55 percent chance of avoiding heart attacks and stroke. The biggest benefits were enjoyed by those who took no exercise then became very active.

To sum it all, it is never too late to exercise or it does not matter when you start exercising in life, as long as you exercise regularly.

News repots reached us that our very own, B.C.-based mezzo soprano Grace Chan is doing extremely well at the Stratford Festival of Canada in Ontario. She is now in the two successful Stratford musicals, as Bloody Mary in South Pacific and as Mrs. Bedwin in Oliver. Her current engagement in the highly prestigious festival is confirmation that Grace Chan can match up to the best of Canadian theater artists. And that she is a major talent herself.

She is working with Cynthia Dale (Street Legal) and internationally acclaimed baritone Theodore Baerg in South Pacific and Colm Feore, one of the most distinguished Canadian actors working today in Canada.

The critics all raved about Grace Chan’s performance in both musicals. "A winning performance" for South Pacific and "She provides a welcome voice of calm and compassion" in Oliver. The former was the most popular show in Stratford and is sold out until September that it was decided to extend the run until mid-November.

Grace Chan has gone to a lofty level that most B.C. artists only dream about or aspire to attain. We hope to see her back next year in March when she re-mounts her one-woman play, Patriot In Search of a Country which was premiered in Victoria by Puente Theater.

Another Fil-Can in the South Pacific cast is Nicolette Liwanag as the slave girl Liat. It’s a smaller role but a career changing part. A resident of Winnipeg, Nicolette was last seen in Vancouver as Mimi and as understudy for Kim in Vancouver’s Arts Club Theater presentation of Miss Saigon.

The demographics of new immigrants to Canada keep changing. The number of Hong Kong and Taiwanese immigrants dwindled in the years after the 1997 handover of Hong Kong. Mainland China is the new immigrant source and is currently the largest overall source of immigrants of all types, including those who are sponsored by family members, skilled workers, entrepreneurs and investors.

Vancouver’s very own Harmony Airways signed a code share agreement with China Eastern Airlines that will give passengers of both airlines more travel options, by connecting with China Eastern’s Shanghai-to-Vancouver service with Harmony’s expanding destinations (Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Maui, Calgary).

Harmony already applied to the federal government for permission to fly from Vancouver to Beijing and from Vancouver to Shanghai.

It was British Columbia Day last week so there were glowing data about the province in the media, here are some highlights:

• Despite increasing cost of living, 98 percent of the residents rated the quality of life in their community as very, very positive.

• 78 percent of Canadians thoroughly clean their homes at least once a week and 67 percent in B.C.

• 57 percent of students in B.C.’s universities are women.

• 82 percent of the $1.2 billion spent in B.C. in 2005 on film and tv was derived from foreign productions, employing over 35,000 just in B.C. alone.

• British Columbians are less critical of their local governments’ performance than other Canadians.