Ying L.K. Hope

P. Eng. Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage life, public welfare, safety, well-being, then environment and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process thro ...

(1923 – November 12, 2007) was a

Chinese Canadian , native_name = , native_name_lang = , image = Chinese Canadian population by province.svg , image_caption = Chinese Canadians as percent of population by province / territory , pop = 1,715,7704.63% of the ...

politician, Toronto Public School Board trustee and

Metro Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an Regional municipality, upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the Old Toronto, old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and vill ...

Councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...

. Hope's grandparents, great uncles and aunts emigrated from China to

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. T ...

in the 1880s as part of a wave of Chinese immigrants working on the railway and in mines. His father and uncle established "Wo Hope Tailoring" ("peace and unity" in Chinese). Though the family's surname was Low, it was assumed by the doctor delivering Hope's eldest brother that the family surname was Hope so it is that name that was put on all of his siblings birth certificates, and his."From the head tax to hope" by Nicholas Keung, ''Toronto Star'', February 15, 2006, page H5 He left Canada in 1946 to study engineering at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

, earned his degree, and settled in Toronto. He was elected to as a trustee to the Toronto Board of Education in 1964 and elected chair in 1968. He was elected an alderman on Toronto City Council in the 1969 municipal election representing Ward 5. He remained on council until he was defeated in the 1985 municipal election by

Ron Kanter Ronald M. Kanter (born February 25, 1948) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal from 1987 to 1990. Background Kanter was educated at Glendon College, York University, the Unive ...

. He won a seat as a Metro Councillor representing Midtown Ward in a 1987

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election use ...

but was defeated the next year, in the 1988 election, by Ila Bossons. He attempted to return to council again in the 1991 election but was defeated by

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

in Ward 13 by a narrow margin of 747 votes. Hope also ran for office at other levels. In the 1967 provincial election he was the Ontario Progressive Conservative candidate in Riverdale placing second to James Renwick of the

Ontario New Democratic Party The Ontario New Democratic Party (french: link=no, Nouveau Parti démocratique de l'Ontario; abbr. ONDP or NDP) is a social democracy, social-democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party currently forms the Leader of the Opposition ( ...

. Decades later he ran for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1984 federal election as a Progressive Conservative but placed third in the riding of Spadina which included the Ward 5 Toronto seat he represented on city council. After leaving politics, Hope continued his activity with the Chinese community as an advocate for reparations for the

Chinese head tax The Chinese Head Tax was a fixed fee charged to each Chinese person entering Canada. The head tax was first levied after the Canadian parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 and it was meant to discourage Chinese people from enteri ...

. He worked as a consultant for Environment Canada's "green plan" in the early 1990s"The greening of Ying Hope", Globe and Mail, August 14, 1992 and pursued a career as a

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...

agen

http://harveykalles.com/agentsdetails.asp?aid=38] Hope died at

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (SHSC), commonly known as Sunnybrook Hospital or simply Sunnybrook, is an academic health science centre located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest trauma centre in Canada and one of two trauma centr ...

in Toronto on November 12, 2007. He was survived by his second wife Audrey and children Judy, Michael, and Madeline, from his first marriage to Alice Hope.

Electoral record (partial)

References

External links

Ying L.K. Hope, 84: Head-tax apology his crowning triumph

From the head tax to hope
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hope, Ying 1923 births 2007 deaths Metropolitan Toronto councillors Canadian politicians of Chinese descent Toronto city councillors Toronto District School Board trustees Progressive Conservative Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Candidates in the 1984 Canadian federal election