Richard Lee

Richard T. Lee (; born 1954) is a Canadian politician. A city councillor in Burnaby, British Columbia (BC) since 2022, he previously represented the electoral district of Burnaby North in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2001 to 2017, as part of the BC Liberal caucus. Background Born in Zhongshan, People's Republic of China in 1954, Lee lived in Hong Kong and Macau before moving to Canada in 1971 to join his grandfather, who entered the country in 1913 by paying the Chinese head tax. He studied physics and mathematics at the University of British Columbia, earning a bachelor of science degree in 1976 and a master of science degree in 1980; he also worked at the university as a programmer analyst at Triumf. He has lived in Burnaby since 1986 with his late wife Anne, with whom he raised three children. Political career A member of the BC Liberal Party since 1993, Lee first contested the riding of Burnaby North in the 1996 election, but lost to Pietro Calendino of the BC New Democratic Party (NDP). He faced Calendino again in the 2001 election, this time winning the seat with 54.37% of the vote. He was re-elected in the 2005, 2009 and 2013 elections before losing to the NDP's Janet Routledge in 2017. During his time as member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), he served as Parliamentary Secretary for the Asia-Pacific Initiative from June 2005 to May 2009, as well as deputy chair of the Special Committee to Appoint a Merit Commissioner and chair of the Government Caucus Asian Economic Development Committee. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Asia Pacific Strategy to the Minister of International Trade and Minister Responsible for the Asia Pacific Strategy and Multiculturalism in June 2013, and Parliamentary Secretary for traditional Chinese medicine in December of the same year.