A local photographer accused Vancouver-Kingsway Liberal candidate Wendy Yuan of prejudice after the appearance of two Chinese-language ads that promote her ethnic background.

In an email sent to Yuan’s campaign office and forwarded to The Tyee, Patrick Tam demanded an apology for an ad that appeared in last Friday’s issue of Sing Tao, a Chinese-Canadian newspaper with offices in Vancouver.

“Please unite, on 10/14 cast a vote for our Chinese community candidate, Wendy Yuan,” it said, according to Tam’s translation.

Tam said a similar message appeared in a Chinese version of a leaflet that was distributed to Vancouver-Kingsway households sometime last week. One of its sections translates roughly to “vote for me because I’m Chinese,” he said.

In a phone interview today, Tam said he felt “sadness and disappointment” when he first saw the ads because they painted the Chinese people of Vancouver-Kingsway as a “monolithic bloc.”

“[Yuan] is dumbing down the Chinese voters,” he said. “One should vote for the most able candidate, not because of their ethnicity.”

Tam said the ads set a bad precedent for Canadian politics.

“If you start doing that then we’ll be turning Canada into the former Yugoslavia.”

Mike Hillman, Yuan’s campaign co-chair, said a third party that is not affiliated with the Liberals created the Sing Tao ad. Hillman added that he was not certain of that person or group’s identity. Asked to comment on the leaflet, which Tam said was officially authorized by Yuan, he said he was not in a position to do so.

“I can’t respond to translations in Chinese, that’s not fair,” he said.

Hillman said Yuan has been trying to sway voters from all ethnic backgrounds, not just of Chinese descent. He dismissed Tam’s allegations of prejudice.

“For Patrick to suggest something as silly as he has I find incredible,” Hillman said.

Geoff Dembicki is a staff reporter for The Hook.