Meet the Candidates Part 3: Wendy Yuan – Liberal Party of Canada

Wendy Yuan – Liberal Party of Canada

Who is Wendy Yuan: Her official bio can be found here.

She is President and CEO of Bradley Pacific Enterprises located in the Vancouver South riding, where Ujjal Dosanjh is the candidate for the Liberal party of Canada.

Ms. Yuan has volunteered with a number of non-profit organizations and has served on the several community boards and has been a real party player in the Liberal Party.
Clearly Ms. Yuan has a lot of business and community board experience, and a decent education background. But and this is a BIG but … there is nothing on her candidate page that indicates she has ever lived in, or worked in the Vancouver-Kingsway riding.

NDP candidate Don Davies reported yesterday that she lives in Richmond and has not denied his repeated claims that she does not live in the riding:

Davies said that although Wendy Yuan, a long-time resident of Richmond, last year claimed that it’s not important for an MP to live in the riding, the Yuan campaign office now says she is a resident of Vancouver Kingsway.

According to land title records as of February 1, 2008, Ms Yuan and her husband are the registered owners of a home in Richmond. Documents further show that Ms Yuan re-mortgaged this property in April, 2007. As of February 6, 2008, there is no record that they own a home in Vancouver.

“We also searched on-line telephone and address directories. We can find no record of any residence attributed to Ms Yuan in the riding,” said Davies.

An anonymous comment on Politics Respun entitled Wendy Yuan: The Next David Emerson for Vancouver-Kingsway and some follow up by Don Davies state that she's perhaps renting a place in the V-K riding.

I’m not really familiar with the kind of income Ms. Yuan makes as President and CEO of Bradley, but it doesn’t add up that someone of that stature and income level and status would be living in the rather run down and sometimes downright scary area of Joyce Skytrain Station. When things don’t make sense, there is some other answer. The one that comes to mind is that for appearance’s sake, Ms. Yuan and her HQ Liberal handlers rented Ms. Yuan an apartment when it was decided she would be parachuted in because she is…..CHINESE. That kind of pandering and political manuevering to “win” the “ethnic vote” in V-K is offensive, insulting and a joke being played on voters who’ve had enough of these kind of tactics. It does not lend credibility to the Liberal Party of Canada being any different than it always has been.

In her own words from 2007

Yuan, a businesswoman who lives in Richmond, noted that Emerson was not a resident of Vancouver Kingsway, and neither were two former MPs in the riding, namely, Sophia Leung of the Liberals and Ian Waddell of the NDP.

“In history, nobody really lived in that riding,” Yuan said. “The criteria for a good MP is not where he or she lives.”

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I couldn’t disagree with Ms. Yuan more. Vancouver-Kingsway does not any more “parachute candidates.” These are candidates who parties strategically place because they perhaps fit a demographic of voters, or somehow “fit” the riding.

Wasn’t David Emerson enough of an example to all of us in this riding about what can happen when someone’s heart and life isn’t really in our community? You would be hard pressed to find anyone who Emerson represented in this riding and he became infamous for failing to meet with constituents. That is a betrayal of all of us and we don’t need a repeat with Ms. Yuan.

And more interesting bits are below:

In 2004, Yuan stepped aside to allow David Emerson , to run as a Liberal in Vancouver Kingsway. Here’s an interesting little e-mail controversy that came up during 2006 nominations for the Liberal riding candidate where it is alleged that Wendy Yuan's campaign manager. allies and insiders may have had something to do with changing the addresses of registered party members so people would be ineligible to vote in the riding nomination contest against Mason Loh. In the end, it didn’t matter since Emerson elbowed everyone else when he was placed in the riding by the Liberals and we all know how that went. More about how the big guns from Liberals HQ denied Loh's appeal.

Wendy Yuan denied she knew any of this. She continued to stress that her campaign was clean and she's done nothing against the book. Since Loh has already filed an appeal, she wouldn't comment on the matter.

The Loh's camp claimed that at least 20 other addresses were changed at the last minute, almost all of them were Loh's supporters.

Premature nomination syndrome?
Sean Holman, May 23, 2006. Public Eye Online.

Earlier, we reported Wendy Yuan would be running for the federal Liberal nomination in Vancouver-Kingsway - the riding presently occupied by turncoat cabinet minister David Emerson.

In an interview with Public Eye, her campaign chair Mike Hillman explained Ms. Yuan's early start this way: "It's my understanding that Bill Graham, as our leader, is anxious to make sure whoever becomes our leader in December has a party organization and structure that is prepared (for an election).

Mr. Hillman also responded to questions as to whether being Ms. Yuan's campaign chair was in conflict with his role as the Liberal's national vice-president - one of the party's senior elected officials. Explained Mr. Hillman, "I don't see it as a conflict. The process around the machinery of elections rests with the leader and with his campaign team. I'm not a member of that.

Contact Wendy, or her team:

Email:wendyy@starwell.com

Riding President: Ivan Curman
Phone: (604) 879-8915

Provincial/Territorial Association:
Liberal Party of Canada in British Columbia
460 - 580 Hornby St.
Vancouver, BC V6C 3B6