Raymond Louie (; born 16 January 1965) is a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

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 cit ...

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 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, and again in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

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 Progressi ...

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 ea ...

, and has ancestry from

Zhongshan Zhongshan ( zh, c=中山 ), alternately romanized via Cantonese as Chungshan, 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 n ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. 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 invo ...

'', 13 December 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. 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, Canada. The technical institute has five campuses located in the Metro Vancouver region, with its main cam ...

, 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 (CEP; []) was a largely private sector, private-sector trade union, labour union with 150,000 members, active from 1992 to 2013. It was created in 1992 through the merger of three unions: th ...

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 In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city ...

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,"Mayor Robertson announces creation of Homeless Emergency Action Team"
'' Gregor Robertson press release'', 9 December 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, and is the larg ...

'', 30 July 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 Corporation, corporate entity representing the metropolitan area of Greater Vancouver, designated by provincial legislation as o ...

'', 29 July 2009."Controversial homeless shelter reopens"
/ref> Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) shelters.

Mayoral aspirations

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

Larry Campbell Larry W. Campbell (born February 28, 1948) is a Canadian politician who was the 37th mayor of Vancouver, Canada, from 2002 until 2005, and a member of the Senate of Canada from 2005 until his retirement in 2023. Before he was mayor, Campbe ...

, 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 12 March 2008, Louie announced his intention to run for the

mayoral nomination."City Councilor Raymond Louie officially declares his quest to be Vancouver mayor"
''GungHaggisFatChoy'', 13 March 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 we ...

'', 18 March 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"
, ''

'', 16 June 2008.

Family life

Louie lives in

with his wife and their three children."Councillor Raymond Louie"
''Vancouver City Council Website'', Accessed 27 August 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 ...

Grand Prix and Tour de White Rock.

References

External links

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