User:A.danderfer/sandbox/JennyKwan

Jenny Wai Ching Kwan (born 1967) is a Hong Kong-born Canadian politician. She was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of British Columbia for the riding of Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, and a senior member of the provincial caucus of the New Democratic Party. After serving for 20 years in the provincial legislative assembly, she was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 election, representing Vancouver East. Kwan has served in multiple roles in Parliament.

Early life
Kwan emigrated to Canada at age nine with her family from Hong Kong. She speaks English, French, and Cantonese.

Vancouver city councillor
In 1993, Kwan at age 26 was elected as the youngest-ever member of Vancouver City Council. She was the sole representative of the civic party known as COPE throughout her term on council.

Election to the House of Commons
In January 2015, Kwan announced that she would be seeking the New Democratic Party nomination in Vancouver East for the 2015 federal election. Mable Elmore was also seeking the party's nomination in the riding. Kwan was nominated on March 22, and sought to replace Libby Davies as the Member of Parliament for the riding. She was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in October 2015, defeating Liberal Party candidate Edward Wong and Conservative Party candidate James Low by a wide margin. In Kwan's maiden speech in December 2015, she discussed the importance of an inquiry into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, childcare, housing, and the environment. On November 12, she was appointed as her party's critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. In January 2017, she requested that MP's hold a debate on how Canada should respond to the U.S travel ban. Kwan won re-election in the 2019 election in her riding of Vancouver East.

Roles in Parliament

Kwan has served and been vice-chair on the Canada-China legislative association and served on the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary group. Kwan has also been a member of the Subcommittee on Private Members' Business of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, and on the Citizenship and Immigration Committee, as well as vice-chairing the Citizenship and Immigration Committee. Additionally, Kwan served as the Deputy Whip of the New Democratic Party beginning in March 2019.