Quick Facts
Biography
Henry Jiun-Hsien Yao (traditional Chinese: 姚君憲; simplified Chinese: 姚君宪) is a Canadian politician who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2020 British Columbia general election. He represents the electoral district of Richmond South Centre as a member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP).
Biography
Born in Taiwan, Yao immigrated to Canada at the age of 11, settling in Richmond, British Columbia. After graduating from Matthew McNair Secondary School, he studied at the University of British Columbia, from which he received a bachelor of arts degree in psychology. He was diagnosed with two types of lymphoma in 2004; after his cancer went into remission, he pursued a career in youth work.
He ran for Richmond City Council twice: the first time in 2014 as an independent candidate, then in 2018 as part of RITE Richmond. Both attempts were unsuccessful.
In the 2020 provincial election, Yao ran in the riding of Richmond South Centre as an NDP candidate, against Alexa Loo of the Liberals. He defeated Loo by a margin of 179 votes, becoming a member of the Legislative Assembly.
Electoral record
Provincial elections
| 2020 British Columbia general election: Richmond South Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| New Democratic | Henry Yao | 6,743 | 50.67 | +10.39 | $37,030.55 | |||
| Liberal | Alexa Loo | 6,564 | 49.33 | +0.61 | $50,107.69 | |||
| Total valid votes | 13,307 | 100.00 | – | |||||
| Rejected ballots | 207 | 1.53 | +0.34 | |||||
| Turnout | 13,514 | 40.12 | −6.58 | |||||
| Registered voters | 33,685 | |||||||
| New Democratic gain from Liberal | Swing | +4.89 | ||||||
| Source: Elections BC | ||||||||
Municipal elections
Top 8 candidates elected — Incumbents marked with "(X)". Elected members' names are in bold
| Party | Council candidate | Vote | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RITE Richmond | Carol Day (X) | 20,871 | 7.01 | |
| Richmond Citizens' Association | Harold Steves (X) | 19,136 | 6.43 | |
| Richmond Community Coalition | Chak Au (X) | 18,026 | 6.05 | |
| Richmond First | Bill McNulty (X) | 17,242 | 5.79 | |
| Richmond Citizens' Association | Kelly Greene | 16,464 | 5.53 | |
| Richmond First | Linda McPhail (X) | 15,521 | 5.21 | |
| RITE Richmond | Michael Wolfe | 13,627 | 4.58 | |
| Independent | Alexa Loo (X) | 13,212 | 4.44 | |
| Richmond First | Derek Dang (X) | 13,115 | 4.40 | |
| Richmond First | Andy Hobbs | 12,336 | 4.14 | |
| Richmond Citizens' Association | Judie Schneider | 11,672 | 3.92 | |
| Richmond Community Coalition | Ken Johnston (X) | 11,161 | 3.75 | |
| Richmond Community Coalition | Jonathan Ho | 11,140 | 3.74 | |
| Richmond Citizens' Association | Jack Trovato | 10,915 | 3.67 | |
| Richmond First | Sunny Ho | 8,933 | 3.00 | |
| RITE Richmond | Niti Sharma | 8,917 | 2.99 | |
| RITE Richmond | Henry Yao | 8,467 | 2.84 | |
| Richmond First | Peter Liu | 8,357 | 2.81 | |
| Richmond Community Coalition | Parm Bains | 7,973 | 2.68 | |
| Independent | John Roston | 7,961 | 2.67 | |
| Richmond Community Coalition | Melissa Zhang | 7,708 | 2.38 | |
| Independent | Kerry Starchuk | 6,959 | 2.34 | |
| Independent | Jason Tarnow | 5,720 | 1.92 | |
| Independent | Adil Awan | 4,278 | 1.44 | |
| Independent | Manjit Singh | 4,134 | 1.39 | |
| Independent | Dennis Page | 3,478 | 1.17 | |
| Independent | Andy Chiang | 3,337 | 1.12 | |
| Independent | Theresa Head | 3,251 | 1.09 | |
| Independent | Patrick J. Saunders | 2,241 | 0.75 | |
| Independent | Zhe Zhang | 2,241 | 0.75 | |
