Michael Lee ( zh, t=李耀華; born ) is a Canadian politician who has represented the

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

Vancouver-Langara Vancouver-Langara is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. History This riding has elected the following Members of Legislative Assembly: 1999 Redistribution Changes to the ...

in the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the deliberative assembly of the Parliament of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Legislative Assembly meets in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria. Members ar ...

since 2017. A member of the

British Columbia Liberal Party The British Columbia Liberal Party, often shortened to the BC Liberals, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition. Subsequent to the 2020 Br ...

caucus, he serves as its Critic for Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. He ran for the party's leadership in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Background

Born in

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 ...

, Lee is the son of immigrants from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. His mother and father worked as a nurse and a pharmacist respectively. He attended the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in biology in 1986, Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in political science in 1989, and Master of Arts in political science with a focus on environmental regulations in 1992. He subsequently attained a law degree from the

University of Victoria Faculty of Law The University of Victoria Faculty of Law is a law school at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The school grants JD, JID, LLM, and PhD degrees in law. Reputation The school was consistently ranked as one of the ...

, then practised business law in the resource sector, eventually becoming partner at Lawson Lundell LLP. Lee is married with three young adult children.

Political career

Lee worked as an assistant to former

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 ...

Kim Campbell Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Campbell is the first and so far only female p ...

during her time as

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

and Minister of National Defence, and was a youth organizer for the Progressive Conservatives. He also assisted in Tung Chan's successful campaign for

Vancouver City Council Vancouver City Council is the governing body of Vancouver, British Columbia. The council consists of a mayor and ten councillors elected to serve a four-year term. Monthly, a deputy mayor is appointed from among the councillors. The current may ...

in the 1990 municipal election. He joined the

in 2002, serving as its membership chair at one point. He then ran for the Liberals in the 2017 provincial election, in which he was elected

member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

(MLA) for

for the first time. He was re-elected MLA in the 2020 provincial election. During his time in the legislature, Lee has served as the Official Opposition Critic for Transportation, Infrastructure and TransLink; Official Opposition Critic for Justice; and Official Opposition Co-Critic for Indigenous Relations. In September 2017, Lee announced he would run for the leadership of the BC Liberals. Despite winning the most votes over the first four rounds, he finished in third place behind winner

Andrew Wilkinson Andrew Wilkinson is an Australian-born Canadian politician. He is the former leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party, and served as the leader of British Columbia's Official Opposition. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British ...

and runner-up

Dianne Watts Dianne Lynn Watts (born October 30, 1959) is a former politician in British Columbia, Canada. She won her first federal election campaign in October 2015 to become a federal Member of Parliament for South Surrey—White Rock. In 2017 she resigned ...

. On June 9, 2021, Lee announced he was running again for the leadership of the BC Liberals. This time he finished third behind winner

Kevin Falcon Kevin Falcon (born 1963) is a Canadian financial executive and a provincial politician who is the leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party as of 2022, and the Leader of the Opposition as of May 2022. He is the member of the Legislative Assem ...

and runner-up

Ellis Ross Ellis Ross is a Canadians, Canadian politician who was first elected in the 2017 British Columbia general election to represent Skeena (provincial electoral district), Skeena. He was re-elected in 2020 British Columbia general election, 2020 an ...

on the fifth ballot.

Other activities

Lee has served as the past chair of the board of directors of Arts Umbrella, and Alumni UBC, the

alumni organization. He has also served as a past vice-chair and board member of Science World British Columbia,

S.U.C.C.E.S.S. The United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society ( or 中僑/中侨 ''Zhōng Qiáo''Guo,SUCCESS: A Chinese Voluntary Association in Vancouver," p. 104.) or S.U.C.C.E.S.S., is a Canadian social services organization headquartered in Vancouv ...

, and Leadership Vancouver. Lee is a past board member of the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

of Greater Vancouver Foundation, the Justice Education Society of BC, Sustainable Cities International, and the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association.

Electoral record

References

External links

MLA: Michael Lee
– Legislative Assembly of British Columbia biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Michael 21st-century Canadian politicians British Columbia Liberal Party MLAs Canadian politicians of Hong Kong descent Lawyers in British Columbia Living people University of British Columbia alumni University of Victoria alumni Canadian politicians of Chinese descent Politicians from Vancouver Year of birth missing (living people)