James Atebe is a past mayor of

Mission, British Columbia Mission is a city in the Lower Mainland of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It was originally incorporated as a district municipality in 1892, growing to include additional villages and rural areas over the years, adding the original To ...

, Canada, a municipality east of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in the

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

region known as the

Fraser Valley The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from the ...

. Atebe is a native of Ekerenyo, a village in the

North Mugirango Constituency North Mugirango is one of four constituencies in Nyamira County. In 1966 the North Mugirango Constituency was split into West Mugirango and a smaller North Mugirango. The name was changed to Borabu / North Mugirango Constituency in 1974. In 1987 ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, and grew up with four brothers and four sisters. He immigrated to Canada from Kenya as a teenager. He received a master's degree in city planning from the

University of Washington, Seattle The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. Atebe began his political career in 1999 when he first ran for office. He was first elected mayor in 2005, after serving as a member of the city council for six years. Atebe was re-elected in 2008 over Matt Johnson, his opponent, who received less than 20 percent of the vote after almost being acclaimed as mayor of Mission. However, in the 2011 municipal election, Atebe was defeated by opponent Ted Adlem, who captured 50 percent of the vote. Atebe was a roommate of Canadian

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

. In 2009, ''Canadian Immigrant'' named Atebe as "one of Canada's Top 25 immigrants" at the Citizenship and Immigration office in Vancouver as part of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards.Quite a humbling experience
''

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

'', May 26, 2009.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Kenyan emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Mayors of Mission, British Columbia Black Canadian politicians {{BritishColumbia-mayor-stub