Gabriel Yiu - Political Career

Political Career

A community activist, Yiu fought for Chinese Head Tax redress and against the closure of Mount St. Joseph Hospital’s emergency room. He successfully campaigned against the federal government’s Bill C-51, which would regulate natural health product and traditional Chinese medicine as pharmaceutical drugs. Together with MLA Jenny Kwan, he campaigned to have China’s Kaiping Watchtower recognized as a world heritage site.

Yiu was a prominent organizer in the anti-HST campaign, that successfully fought for the repeal of the Harmonized Sales Tax in British Columbia.

In 2005, Yiu was the BC NDP candidate in Burnaby-Willingdon, where he was narrowly defeated by John Nuraney.

In 2009, Yiu was the BC NDP candidate in Vancouver-Fraserview, where he was defeated by BC Liberal candidate and former Police Chief Kash Heed. Kash Heed was later fined $8,000 for an Elections Act violation for over-spending the campaign limit and two other individuals in the Liberal campaign were found guilty of violations of the Elections Act.

In 2011, Yiu won the BC NDP nomination to represent Vancouver-Fraserview again in the next provincial election.