THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE: WHO IS MR. MAK?
Candidate hasn’t attended a single forum, granted an interview, nor allowed photo
Most people who run for city council crave attention.
That’s true whether they’re serious candidates who want to win, activist candidates who want to advance their cause or fringe candidates who just want someone to listen.
Henry Mak is different. Mak is one of 12 candidates running against Don Iveson for mayor.
And he’s invisible.
Mak hasn’t attended a single forum. He hasn’t granted a single interview. He hasn’t allowed anyone to take his photograph.
George Chung Yan Lam, 76, does show up to represent Mak at public events and forums, identifying himself as Mak’s agent.
(In fact, he only assumed that role officially Tuesday evening when he arrived at a mayoral forum with a document bearing Mak’s initials, declaring Lam his agent.)
Lam himself is running to become the Ward A public school trustee.
Together, Mak and Lam call themselves NASA City. That stands for “Needs Another Seven Alderwomen.”
Their website features what appear to be stock photos of seven beautiful young women, several in tank tops, to underline their point. (The website also rants about the “communism” in Iveson’s blood turning Edmonton into a police state.)
The website includes many pictures of Lam.
There are no photographs of Mak.
So where is Mak? Is he even real? Or are he and Lam the same person? That’s the question a lot of people were asking after Tuesday’s mayoral candidates forum.
When I asked Lam that question, he was most indignant.
“I am George Lam,” he said. “How can you people think I am Mr. Mak? How can you actually think I’m Mr. Mak?”
Lam, who identifies himself as a retired United Church minister, said he met Mak when Mak belonged to his Chinatown congregation. Mak, he says, was born in Hong Kong and moved to Edmonton about 30 years ago, working for years as a provincial safety inspector.
Lam says he and Mak both ran in the 2007 municipal election, Lam for mayor and Mak for a council seat. But there’s no record of Henry Mak ever running for office here.
A man named Shiu Wing Mak did run for council in 2007, but he described himself as an internet marketer and was happy to pose for a photo — so I’m not sure he’s the same mysterious Mr. Mak who is now running for mayor.
Why is Mak so secretive? So elusive?
Lam said his candidate lives in the Alberta Avenue neighbourhood and fears for his safety.
I asked if I could meet them together. Lam declined.
He suggested I call Mak myself, and gave me what he said was Mak’s private cellphone number. The man who answered identified himself as Mr. Mak. When I told him I am a journalist, he hung up.
I called back from a different number. I asked if he was also known as Shiu Wing Mak.
“Everything is on the website,” he said. “If you want to write an article, it’s on the website.” He hung up again.
There are so many public questions now about Mak’s identity, Edmonton’s returning officer, Linda Sahli, held a news conference Wednesday to address the mystery.
Sahli, choosing her words with exquisite care and precision, said Mak and Lam had submitted properly notarized nomination papers with the correct number of signatures. Mak and Lam, she said, had presented their documents in person and shown photo ID. But as much as reporters pressed, Sahli would not say whether Lam and Mak are two different people, only that she had 132 different nomination packages under 132 different names.
“We don’t ask people to confirm their genetic identity when they file their nomination papers.”
It wouldn’t be against the rules, she added, unprompted, for the same person to run in two different elections run by t wo different authorities, such as the City of Edmonton and the public school board.
It’s a ridiculous situation. And after our weekend of terrors and tragedies, we need a laugh. But the absurdity underlines the real challenge of running an election with candidates so far on the fringe, we can’t even see them. It’s something the province should address when it updates the Local Authorities Elections Act.
Meanwhile, William Shim, the lawyer who notarized Mak’s nomination papers, assured me Wednesday that Mak isn’t imaginary.
“He’s a real human being, with a beating heart,” Shim said with a laugh. “He showed me ID. I believe he and George Lam are entirely different people.”
As for Lam, he’s not offering up proof of Mak’s existence.
“In this situation, you press too much,” he scolded me. “This must all be some misunderstanding.”