Sandy Lee (born 1964) is a South Korean-born-Canadian lawyer and politician, who was a member of the

Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly, or Legislative Council of the Northwest Territories (with Northwest hyphenated as North-West until 1906), is the legislature and the seat of government of Northwest Territories in Canada. It is a u ...

from 1999 to 2011.

Political career

Territorial assembly

Lee was elected to the legislature for the first time in the

1999 Northwest Territories general election The 1999 Northwest Territories general election was held on December 6, 1999. This was the first election under the new boundaries that were created when Nunavut was carved out of the Northwest Territories. 19 members were elected, five fewer tha ...

, defeating future MLA

Dave Ramsay Dave Ramsay (born March 18, 1970, in Saint John, New Brunswick) is a Yellowknife businessman and politician. Political career Ramsay first ran for a seat in the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in the 1999 Northwest Territories gener ...

and four other candidates. She was re-elected to her second term in office in the

2003 Northwest Territories general election The 2003 Northwest Territories general election was held on November 24, 2003, to elect the 19 members of the Legislative Assembly. The election was called on October 27. Premier Stephen Kakfwi had previously chosen not to run. The territory op ...

, winning 80.56 per cent of the vote with a landslide. She won her third election in the 2007 Northwest Territories general election with 72.59 per cent of votes. Lee was elected to the cabinet by the members of the assembly in November of 2007 as per the consensus system of government; Lee was the Minister for Health and Social Services, Status of Women and Persons with Disabilities. She was also given the portfolio of Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs when MLA Norman Yakeleya resigned until a new minister was appointed.

2011 federal election

On March 26, 2011, Lee, a former

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. and generally sits at the Centrism, ...

member, resigned as MLA and minister so she could run for the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

in the Western Arctic (now the Northwest Territories

electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

) in the 2011 federal election. Lee was appointed to run by the headquarters of the Conservative Party in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

but faced opposition from some Western Arctic Conservative Association members. There was an attempt to add former MLA John Pollard She did not win election to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

, losing to incumbent MP

Dennis Bevington Dennis Fraser Bevington (born March 27, 1953) is a Canadian politician from the Northwest Territories, and was the member of Parliament for the riding of Northwest Territories from 2006 until 2015. Born in Fort Smith, he served as mayor from ...

. In 2015, she was appointed Director of Northern Affairs NWT by the government of then prime minister,

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

References

1964 births Canadian people of Korean descent South Korean emigrants to Canada 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories Living people Women MLAs in the Northwest Territories Politicians from Yellowknife Conservative Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons 21st-century Canadian women politicians 20th-century Canadian women politicians 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories {{NorthwestTerritories-politician-stub