Here's the first public media acknowledgement that Tartan Day is officially happening in the City of Vancouver.
Indeed, the city of Vancouver, province of BC, and country of Canada – all trace it's historical beginnings to Scottish pioneers.

Vancouver's first mayor was Scottland born Malcolm Alexander McLean, elected in 1886.  BC's first governor was born of a Scottish father in Guyana, then raised in Lanark, the Scottish market town where the Scots Parliament was first held and where William Wallace used to live.  Canada's first Prime Ministers was Sir John A. MacDonald, born in Edinburgh. 

But today in Canada's most Asian city, where BC traces it's Chinese ancestry to 1858, it's year of conception as a British colony, the charge to create a Tartan Day recognition is led by multigenerational Canadians of Chinese ancestry, Todd Wong and Raymond Louie.

Vancouver's
lads and lassies have until Sunday to press their kilts and dust off
their sporans for the city's first official Tartan Day.

Council
will declare today that Vancouver is joining a long list of cities
around the world that celebrate their Scottish roots on April 6.

The
idea of hopping on the international Tartan Day bandwagon was the
brainchild of Todd Wong, who founded the local phenomenon known as the
Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.

The
event, which marries Chinese New Year with Robbie Burns Day at the end
of January, celebrated its 10th anniversary this year.

The
declaration comes at the urging of Vision Vancouver councillors Heather
Deal — still livid over her Macdonald clan's defeat at Glencoe in 1692
— and Raymond Louie — who claims to be a MacLouie, despite his
Chinese heritage.

Deal says the idea is to add a
Scottish-flavoured salute to the city's Celtic roots, already
acknowledged with an annual St. Patrick's Day parade, Celtic festival
and the Gung Haggis dinner.

Wong is expected to make an
appearance at the ceremony in council chambers, accompanied by a
traditional piper. The 47-year-old fifth-generation Chinese Canadian
says he came to love all things Scottish — including Robbie Burns —
in 1993, when he volunteered at a Burns dinner at Simon Fraser
University.

cmontgomery@png.canwest.com