Katrina Chen

Katrina Chen (; born July 14, 1983) is a Canadian politician who represented the electoral district of Burnaby-Lougheed in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2017 to 2024.

Chen is currently an author, advocate, and the President of 安信 (AnXin) Community Savings Credit Union, the first credit union initiative dedicated to serving Chinese Canadians and Chinese-language communities in British Columbia, Canada. She was the first Taiwanese-Canadian elected and appointed to the B.C. Cabinet and Executive Council as the Minister of State for Child Care from 2017 to 2022.

Throughout her career and activism, Chen has always been an advocate for equity. She is also a certified coach with the International Coaching Federation. Her children’s book, A Stronger Home, was published by Orca Book Publishers in May 2025 and is dedicated to raising awareness about family violence from a child’s perspective.

Early life and career

Chen was raised in Taichung, Taiwan, where her father was a member of the city council. She immigrated to Canada on her own and completed her education in British Columbia.

She served as a trustee on the Burnaby Board of Education, and worked in both provincial and federal government constituency offices for over 10 years. She has a bachelor of arts degree with a political science major and a history minor from Simon Fraser University, and also earned a certificate in immigration laws, policies and procedures from the University of British Columbia. She has also worked as a community organizer with ACORN, emceed for major cultural festivals, and volunteered as an executive member for several local non-profit organizations for many years. She is also a professional career, life, executive and leadership coach.

Political career

Chen was first elected to the legislature in the 2017 British Columbia general election."NDP makes gains in Tri-Cities, Burnaby with upsets"
CBC News British Columbia, May 9, 2017. After the NDP formed government, Chen was appointed to the cabinet of John Horgan as Minister of State for Child Care.

During her time as a cabinet minister, Chen led the Child Care BC plan to start a new social program in BC – an affordable, quality, inclusive early learning and care system for all families, and successfully negotiated the first Canada-Wide early learning agreement with the federal government with billions of new funding for child care.

Chen was the Chair of the Child Care Working Group and served on many Cabinet committees including the Covid Working Group, Priorities and Accountability Committee and Social Initiatives Committee.

As part of an initiative to increase the number of early childhood educators in the province, she has championed dual-credit programs throughout BC which will allow grade 11 and 12 students to earn post secondary credits toward early childhood careers. During her tenure, she led the implementation of over four dozens of new initiatives to bring down the cost of child care, to support the early childhood education workforce including the new wage enhancement program, and to accelerate the creation of new child care and before and after school care spaces across B.C. communities.

After Horgan announced his retirement as premier and party leader, Chen was suggested by pundits as a possible candidate in the party leadership election. Instead, she endorsed David Eby, doing so before Eby had announced his intentions. After Eby formally announced his leadership bid, Chen joined as co-chair of his campaign, alongside Ravi Kahlon.

After Eby was successful in his leadership bid and sworn-in as premier, Chen was speculated to receive a major role in his cabinet. However, Chen declined to join the new cabinet, and stepped down in order to deal with long-term trauma. Chen has since been a vocal advocate for equity, child care, education, mental health, and anti-gender-based violence, drawing from her years of work and lived experiences.

Electoral record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Katrina
British Columbia New Democratic Party MLAs
British Columbia school board members
1983 births
Women government ministers of Canada
Living people
Members of the Executive Council of British Columbia
Women MLAs in British Columbia
People from Burnaby
Taiwanese emigrants to Canada
21st-century Canadian women politicians
Politicians from Taichung
Canadian people of Chinese descent
21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia