Alexa Loo (born October 6, 1972) is a Canadian athlete, accountant and politician, serving as

city councillor A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

for

Richmond, British Columbia Richmond is a city in the coastal Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly a suburban city, it occupies almost the entirety of Lulu Island (excluding Queensborough, New Westminster, Queensborough), between the two estuarine dis ...

since 2014. As a

snowboard Snowboards are boards where the user places both feet, usually secured, to the same board. The board itself is wider than most skis, with the ability to glide on snow."snowboarding." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 17 Mar ...

er, she competed in the parallel giant slalom at the

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

Early life and family

Loo was 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 cit ...

and raised in the adjacent city of

. Her father is Chinese-Canadian, and her mother is of French-English ancestry. She attended the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

, where she competed as both a rower and swimmer for the Thunderbirds. After graduating with a bachelor of commerce degree in 1994, she joined accounting firm

KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...

, eventually gaining the chartered accountant designation. Loo married Ari Goosen shortly after the

; the couple has two sons.

Snowboarding career

She began

snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralym ...

at 15 years old, and joined a racing club in 1995. By the 2000s, she was coached by Mark Fawcett; she also counted Jasey-Jay Anderson among her mentors. In 2006 she won a bronze medal in the woman's parallel

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in Slalom skiing, slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant sl ...

(PGS) at the World Cup in Plan de Corones,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, becoming the first Canadian woman to earn a World Cup medal in alpine snowboarding. At that year's Winter Olympics in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, she finished 20th overall in the women's PGS qualifying runs. After finishing 12th in women's PGS at the

in Vancouver, she announced her retirement from competitive snowboarding in July that year. Other career highlights include: *Finished ninth in PGS at the World Cup Lac Beauport,

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. *Gold medalist in PGS at the Nor Am Cup in

Copper Mountain (Colorado) Copper Mountain is a mountain and ski resort located in Summit County, Colorado, about west of Denver on Interstate 70. The resort has of in-bounds terrain under lease from the U.S. Forest Service, White River National Forest, Dillon Ran ...

. *Eighth in PGS at the 2005 World Cup, Tandadalen, Sweden. *16th in PGS at the 2005 World Cup in Sapporo-Makomanai, Japan. *17th in PGS at the 2005 World Cup in Bardonecchia, Italy. *Silver medalist in parallel slalom at the 2005 NorAm Cup PSL, Sun Peaks, British Columbia. *14th in PGS at the 2004 World Cup, Soelden, Austria. Loo served as the athlete representative to the

International Ski Federation The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, also known as FIS (), is the highest international governing body for skiing and snowboarding. It was previously known as the International Ski Federation () until 26 May 2022 when the name was cha ...

(FIS) and for many years sat on the board of directors of AthletesCAN - the association of Canada's national team athletes.

Politics

Loo ran for Richmond City Council for the first time in the 2011 municipal election; she finished in 11th place and was not elected. She ran again in the 2014 municipal election as an

independent candidate An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have polit ...

, this time winning a council seat by finishing eighth overall. She was re-elected for a second term in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. In September 2020, Loo became the

British Columbia Liberal Party BC United (BCU), known from 1903 until 2023 as the British Columbia Liberal Party or BC Liberals, is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party has been described as conservative, neoliberal, and occupying a centre-right ...

candidate for the riding of

Richmond South Centre Richmond South Centre is a former provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada in use from 2017 to 2024. The riding was created with territory taken from Richmond Centre, Richmond East and Richmond ...

, in a bid to replace retiring

member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...

Linda Reid Linda Reid (born June 27, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of British Columbia, representing Richmond East from 1991 to 2017, and Richmond South Centre from 2017 to 2020. A caucus membe ...

. In the October 24, 2020 provincial election, she lost to

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

candidate Henry Yao by a margin of 179 votes. She was re-elected to Richmond City Council for a third term in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, this time running as a candidate for ONE Richmond.

Electoral history

Provincial elections

Municipal elections

'' Top 8 candidates elected — Incumbents marked with "(X)". Elected members' names are in bold ''

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Loo, Alexa 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from British Columbia Canadian female snowboarders Snowboarders at the 2006 Winter Olympics Snowboarders at the 2010 Winter Olympics Richmond, British Columbia city councillors Canadian accountants Canadian women accountants Olympic snowboarders for Canada Canadian sportspeople of Chinese descent 21st-century Canadian women politicians Women municipal councillors in British Columbia University of British Columbia alumni UBC Thunderbirds swimmers Canadian sportsperson-politicians BC United candidates in British Columbia provincial elections 21st-century Canadian sportswomen