Raymond Louie (; born January 16, 1965) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician. He is a five-term

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 ...

City Councillor. Formerly a member of

Coalition of Progressive Electors The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) is a municipal political party in the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia. It has traditionally been associated with tenants, environmentalists, and the labour movement. COPE is generally gu ...

civic party, Louie broke away and was re-elected in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, and again in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

as a member of

Vision Vancouver Vision Vancouver is a green liberal municipal political party in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Vision was formed in the months leading up to the 2005 municipal election. Formation Vision was founded by former Coalition of Progressive ...

Background

Louie was born and raised in

East Vancouver East Vancouver (also called "East Van" or "the East Side") is a region within the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to the ...

, and has ancestry from

Zhongshan Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 i ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. His family ran a local bakery."Raymond Louie: Detailed, Hardworking, Part of the Solution"
''

Vancouver Observer ''The Vancouver Observer'' is an independent online newspaper. The site was founded in 2006 by journalist Linda Solomon as an online platform for Vancouver bloggers, writers, reporters, photographers and filmmakers. Novelist Ruth Ozeki was inv ...

'', December 13, 2008. He was the youngest of three siblings. He is distantly related to billionaire businessman Brandt Louie. Louie attended Nootka Elementary School and

Windermere Secondary School Windermere Secondary School is a public secondary school located on the east side of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Current Leadership program The school offers a special program called the ''Leadership Program'', where students ...

. After graduating from high school he attended

British Columbia Institute of Technology The British Columbia Institute of Technology (also referred to as BCIT), is a public polytechnic institute in Burnaby, British Columbia. The technical institute has five campuses located in the Metro Vancouver region, with its main campus in Burn ...

, yet never graduated. Louie worked at Mail-O-Matic Services, a local mailing house, and as a mailer with Pacific Newspaper Group. While working at Pacific Newspaper Group, Louie became a National Representative for the

Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, abbreviated CEP in English and SCEP in French, was a largely private sector labour union with 150,000 members, active from 1992 to 2013. It was created in 1992 through the merger of three u ...

Vancouver City Council

Louie was first elected to

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 2002, and was re-elected in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014. As a City Councillor, Louie is on a number of local organizations, including, the Parent Advisory Committee for Maquinna Annex and Community Visions, a community liaison group in Hastings-Sunrise. In Council, Louie has served in numerous city committees: * Member, Standing Committee on Planning and Environment * Member, Standing Committee on Transportation and Traffic * Member, Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets * Director, Vancouver Parking Corporation * Director, Vancouver Civic Theatres Board * Co-Chair, Steering Committee for the redevelopment of Southeast False Creek * Vice-Chair, City Creative Task Force * Co-Chair, Mayor's Working Group on Immigration * Director, Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) * Director, GVRD Labour Relations Bureau * Director, GVRD Finance Committee * Director, Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (GVTA) * Director, GVTA Finance and Audit Committee * member of COPE

Homeless Emergency Action Team

Louie was one of three elected officials who served on

Homeless Emergency Action Team The Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) was announced on December 9, 2008 by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson to assist Vancouver's homeless citizens during an extremely cold winter.

,"Mayor Robertson announces creation of Homeless Emergency Action Team"
'' Gregor Robertson press release'', December 9, 2008. which conceived the controversial"Controversial homeless shelter to shut down Aug. 7"
, ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

'', July 30, 2009."Decision on HEAT shelter closure likely today"
, ''

Metro Vancouver The Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD), or simply Metro Vancouver, is a Canadian political subdivision and corporate entity representing the metropolitan area of Greater Vancouver, designated by provincial legislation as one of the 28 ...

'', July 29, 2009."Controversial homeless shelter reopens"
/ref>

Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) shelters The low-barrier Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) shelters were announced on December 9, 2008 by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson to assist Vancouver’s homeless citizens during an extremely cold winter. The province of British Columbia, City ...

Mayoral aspirations

In a 2007 interview, former Vancouver Mayor and current Senator,

Larry Campbell Larry W. Campbell (born 28 February 1948) is a Canadian politician that served as the 37th mayor of Vancouver, Canada from 2002 until 2005 and since 2005 has been a member of the Senate of Canada. Before he was mayor, Campbell worked for th ...

, described Louie as a future mayor of Vancouver. Campbell added that he still holds that view, but wouldn't say if Louie should run for mayor in 2008. "That would be up to Raymond," Campbell said. "I just know that someday he'll be mayor. I don't know when that will be." On March 12, 2008, Louie announced his intention to run for the

mayoral nomination."City Councilor Raymond Louie officially declares his quest to be Vancouver mayor"
''GungHaggisFatChoy'', March 13, 2008. In an effort to secure the Vision Vancouver nomination, Louie outspent all mayoral hopefuls by spending a total of $243,621.
''

Vancouver Courier The ''Vancouver Courier'' was a Canadian semi-weekly local newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, by the Van-Net chain owned by Glacier Media Group. In 2007, it was Canada's largest distributed community newspaper, with a wee ...

'', March 18, 2009. However, in June 2008 he was defeated in the Vision Vancouver nomination race by Gregor Robertson, who went on to win the subsequent general election."It's Robertson vs. Ladner for mayor"
, ''

'', June 16, 2008.

Family life

Louie lives in

with his wife and their three children."Councillor Raymond Louie"
''Vancouver City Council Website'', Accessed August 27, 2009. He is an avid cyclist and has participated in the

Gastown Gastown is the original settlement that became the core of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and a national historic site and a neighbourhood in the northwest section of the Downtown Eastside, adjacent to Downtown Vancouver. Its hi ...

Grand Prix and Tour de White Rock.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Louie, Raymond 1965 births Living people Canadian politicians of Chinese descent Coalition of Progressive Electors councillors 21st-century Canadian politicians Vision Vancouver councillors