The Filipino community will have their national hero here in Airdrie. 

The city of Airdrie, along with the Philippine Consulate General in Calgary, has erected a statue to commemorate Dr. Jose Rizal. 

Zaldy Patron who is the Consul General in Calgary talked about why Dr. Rizal was such an important figure in Filipino history. 

“He is our national hero of the Philippines. He was one of our heroes when we fought the Spanish colonizers. We were under Spain for 333 years, so the Philippines gained our independence June 12th, 1898.” 

Patron went on to say that Dr. Rizal was one of the few who inspired the reforms in the Philippines when he was alive.  

Dr. Rizal was killed by a firing squad on December 30, 1896, and was not able to witness the Philippines’ independence.  

Patron went on to say that there are already a lot of statues of Dr. Rizal around the world.  

“You can see statues in the EU, Singapore, China... you know in many parts of the world. In Canada, there are four statues, two in Ontario, one in Montreal, and one in Winnipeg.” 

With Alberta having the second-largest Filipino population in Canada with over 175,000, Patron thought it would be good to have one here in Alberta. 

Patron went on to say that Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown welcomed the idea of having the statue put up in Nose Creek Park. 

The reason why Patron wanted the statue in Nose Creek Park is that there are a lot of Filipino events happening and it's right next to St. Paul's Catholic Church which is helpful because most Filipinos are Catholic. 

After a couple of years of planning with the city, the statue was unveiled Saturday, October 23rd. 

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