You want to be the first openly-gay, Asian male, Governor General of Canada?

That became a running joke during a student government conference this summer after I noticed a couple of things. First, how young everyone else was, and second, that I was the only visible minority there. Also, I’m pretty sure I’m one of the only student politicians that prides himself on being openly gay and that’s basically what got me to this point. My involvement in the gay and lesbian community gave me my start in student politics and my goal has always been to be in politics so I’m seriously considering a bid for city council.

Your second language is Tagalog, or Filipino. Can you teach me some?

Well, that should be my second language, because I was raised speaking it, but I’ve actually had some complications because of it. When I was young, my name used to be spelled Jon-Pol, but I had to get it legally changed because I was running into problems. I had to repeat kindergarten because they thought I didn’t know how to spell my name properly. So I can understand Tagalog, but I don’t speak it very often.

Being from the Philippines, do you have any objections to eating balut eggs?

Right... Basically a chicken fetus. A not so hard-boiled, premature fetus egg sort of thing. I tried it when I was a kid living in the Philippines, people would eat it as a delicacy and in the morning you could hear the balut dealer selling them on the street. Once I grew up and began to realize what it actually was, it wasn’t so much of a delicacy anymore.

I’ve eaten worse.