While the Japanese government considers whether to issue a travel visa for former president Lee Teng-hui (
Mackay was a doctor and missionary who came to Taiwan in 1872 and founded the Mackay Memorial Hospital in Tamsui, Taipei County, 100 years ago. The hospital is one of the most prestigious in northern Taiwan. Tamsui is also Lee's hometown.
According to a Toronto newspaper, Mayor John Geoghegan of the city of Woodstock, Ontario, has sent an invitation to Lee to visit the city to attend the ceremony slated for June 2.
Sources from Toronto's Presbyterian Church said that Woodstock decided to invite the former Taiwan president to Canada for three reasons. First, Lee is an alumnus of the Tamkang High School in Tamsui, a school established by Mackay more than 110 years ago. Second, Lee is now a resident of Tamsui, the coastal town in which Mackay spent most of his years in Taiwan. Third, Lee is a devout member of the Presbyterian Church, of which Mackay was a missionary.
The sources noted that the first hospital that Mackay established in Taiwan was located in Tamsui. Still in operation is Oxford College, located near Tamkang High School in the hills of Tamsui, which was also established by Mackay and named in memory of his home county of Oxford.
Whether Lee will be able to make time in his tight schedule to visit Canada in early June remains to be seen, the sources from the Toronto Presbyterian Church said.
"The likelihood of his visiting will increase if Lee's plan to visit Cornell University in the United States in May proceeds smoothly," said Lo I-shih (羅益世), former head of the Toronto office of the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce.
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