If all the Canadians living in Hong Kong were sent home, it's estimated they could form Canada's 16th largest city.
Such are the strong ties between Canada and Hong Kong, a November survey by the Asia-Pacific Foundation (APF) found that there were 295,930 Canadians living here. The Vancouver-based think tank found in its survey of nearly 36,000 local households - representing 1.5 per cent of 2.34 million households - that about 7.85 per cent had at least one Canadian over the age of 18.
'Hong Kong is Asia's most Canadian city,' says Yuen Pau Woo, president and CEO of APF Canada. 'People-to-people ties between Canada and Hong Kong are based on extensive family, business and education linkages. They are an asset in trans-Pacific business, diplomatic and socio-cultural relations that deserve greater recognition in Canada.'
While the influx of mainlanders, and their subsequent investment in everything from property to mines to the Alberta oil sands project, has been headline news in Canada, they are following a beaten path established by the early migrants from Hong Kong and Guangdong.
With Statistics Canada reporting a population last year of 1.3 million Chinese-Canadians living in a country of 33.5 million people, the reach of Hongkongers throughout Canada is vast through a variety of business and social interests.
Far from the early settlers who established corner stores, laundries and restaurants, the newer generation of Hong Kong businesses in Canada include Li Ka-shing's Husky Energy, one of the country's biggest oil companies; Asia-Pacific Marine Containers, owned by Leung Maritime Group; and Richmond, British Columbia's Aberdeen Centre, a popular shopping mall in the Vancouver suburbs owned by Thomas Fung Wing-fat. The Sun Hung Kai Finance scion also owns the Fairchild Group, a national media chain comprising television and radio stations, and print publications.
