Henry Yao 姚君宪 Interview collection | 2026 BC election

Henry Yao (姚君宪) | Ep. 1: Life Is Too Short to Live Just for Money | 2026 BC Election Interview

https://youtu.be/7PVC0-Ld9EQ

(Transcript from the episode's English subtitles; speakers not labelled. Host: Sarah Yu.)

[0:00] Highlights

Your reason for entering politics goes back to an illness you had early on? Back then I got cancer: two different lymphomas. In my early 20s. When I heard the news, I was very scared. If I'd gotten this 30 years earlier, it meant certain death, no survival rate. Life is short. I don't want to waste it just making money. If the treatment weren't public, I might not have been able to afford it. and I might not be sitting here talking to you today.

[0:25] Why the NDP

The NDP as a party, people do have different views about it. Yet this time you're still with the NDP. People often ask why we prefer the NDP. It's because we lean toward a more humane approach. For example, I really value education, and I really value health care. I really like public education and public health care. I think for us ordinary folks, if health care becomes profit-driven, we can see how scary it is in the US. So I don't want to go in that direction.

[0:50] Lymphoma in his early twenties

Your reason for entering politics goes back to an illness you had early on? In 2004, I got cancer: two different lymphomas. You were in your 20s? Just over 20. Early 20s. When I heard the news, I was very scared. Even before I'd talked with the doctor, there was already a sense of fear. Because no one wants to face death, especially that young. So back then I felt life is really short. Then, through the doctors and treatment, I felt the treatment was really good. It brought me back from death's door. The doctor explained to me back then that if I'd gotten this 30 years earlier, it meant certain death, no survival rate. Ten years earlier, the treatment would've been very painful. But by the time I got it, medical technology was very advanced. So I'd say I was one of the lucky ones, able to get such good medical support. And I felt we should give more back to our community. Life is short. I don't want to waste it just making money and not contributing to the community. You're grateful for Canadian health care. Very grateful for Canadian health care. Because if the treatment weren't public, I might not have been able to afford it. and I might not be sitting here talking to you today. So I'm grateful for this treatment, and that it got my family through this difficult time. And it took a few years to recover. Five years. For treatment, we had I think six rounds of chemo, then four rounds of radiation, then five years of yearly checkups, checking every year if it had come back. After five years it hadn't come back, so I was officially in remission. I had beaten this disease.

[2:08] After cancer: youth services

Of course, by the five-year mark, I'd already started doing youth services and counselling, hoping to do something meaningful for the community. I also felt that when I was young, being from a Chinese family, there was more focus on studying. But I felt that mentally, socially, and in terms of building self-confidence, it wasn't there. So I spent most of my time afterwards doing youth services and counselling, helping others build what I didn't have back then. As you did this work, did the things you lacked back then gradually develop in you as well? Actually, back then my youth services were Richmond's largest, even though we had the fewest resources. But when we talked with the City, they felt, hey, you've done enough, stop doing so much. I was a bit frustrated. So I said, then I'll go into politics and change direction from a higher level.

[2:48] Losing the 2014 council race

So you ran in a provincial election? Municipal. 2014 was a municipal election. Running for what? As an independent candidate. Independent candidate. Independent. City councillor. Yes. Of course, I did poorly. No experience. Just a young guy with that kind of mindset. Actually, we feel that whether it's municipal or provincial, you need to prepare for the long haul. It's like running a marathon. At first you surely won't have much public support, but after a few years, right, it slowly builds up. Honestly, about being a city councillor, I really hope that everyone, whatever kind of representative, learns gradually from life experience and builds it up. I'm grateful I didn't win back then, because honestly, I was a bit wet behind the ears, just too young.

[3:28] Four years of community work

After I lost, I spent about four years out in the community, at different community events, joining various non-profits, and doing all sorts of volunteer work. For example, I often helped at a place that fed the homeless, washing dishes and serving vulnerable people. I was also with our environmental groups, helping them with removing invasive species and picking up litter. So I was honoured, in 2020, to have the chance to run for the BC NDP in the provincial election. After that provincial election, I jumped to a new level once again.

[4:01] School seismic upgrades and expansions

Among your contributions was DeBeck Elementary's seismic funding. The government gave them a lot of money. Right. Because back then at least half of Richmond's elementary schools weren't... Earthquake-safe. weren't earthquake-safe, or not up to par. As everyone knows, in Richmond we don't know when disaster will strike. With earthquakes, it's not whether one will happen, but when. As parents, who would want their kids at an unsafe school? We want them to leave home happy and come home safe. So on seismic safety, we put in a great deal of work. At the same time, look at our schools. Richmond Centre has many new immigrants, and many young families settled there. So back then, schools couldn't keep up; school spaces couldn't meet the need. So at the time, I worked with Cook Elementary School and also with Brighouse Elementary School. Both were expanded at the same time. One added 150 new spaces, the other 125. But these were all temporary solutions. So in 2023, I worked with the Richmond school district on how to get the province, the City and the school district to work together to find a suitable site in Richmond to build a new elementary school.

[5:02] English-only TCM exams

Pushing this through over four years must have been very hard. Because government policy isn't like you propose it and it gets carried out. On the TCM exams, you also made a big contribution. Can you tell us specifically about the difficulties and how you solved them? Many of my TCM friends told me they now faced a different problem: for TCM, their regulatory body now required all exams in English. Right. Not in Chinese. So many friends in the TCM community brought this to me. I found a chance to talk to our minister. His view was: isn't it just language? They didn't see what language involves. If Chinese won't do, learn English and take the exam. That's when you need a candidate or an elected representative with a diverse background. I told everyone, it's not just language. Simply put, we'd like you to also translate lots of Chinese into English, like 'heatiness' or catching a chill, how to tell heat from cold, and in Chinese medicine, all the different acupuncture points. Language is a culture. It can never be carried over completely, 100%. If we truly want TCM to be seen as something worth learning from, worth carrying forward, a medical system, then we must understand its profound language and culture. We have to hold on to its roots, and not give them up. Once language and culture are cut off, the development of TCM in North America will start to feel different in flavour. It'll deteriorate. So back then I also worked with various ministers, Minister Anne Kang, Minister George Chow, and our Premier at the time, David Eby. Together, we placed North America's first public TCM degree at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU).

[6:28] As a father of two

As a father, raising my two kids, one aged four, one five, my biggest hope is that when my life's journey is over, my kids grow up and, in all kinds of mainstream and diverse settings, can be on an equal footing with everyone, and not be discriminated against because of their background. Hearing you talk about the TCM exam, I think your approach really managed to dig out the root of the problem.

[6:49] “We're not in it for the money”

Let me put it this way. As much as I wanted to help, I was lucky back then to have a very good team. Because honestly, if an MLA decides not to do anything, they really can choose to work or not, and no one can do anything about it. But as I said, we're not in it for money. We're here to take care of this community. I just want my kids to grow up in a good community, to leave home happy and come home safe, My parents also live in the riding. I also hope they and their older friends can go out safely and come home happy.

Henry Yao (姚君宪) | Ep. 2: Infrastructure Long Overdue | 2026 BC Election Interview

https://youtu.be/S7oKE33pn3w

(Transcript from the episode's English subtitles; speakers not labelled. Host: Sarah Yu.)

[0:00] Highlights

The NDP's deficit after nine years in government is fairly serious. What's your view? Nobody should want to see a deficit, because a deficit means our kids will have to pay that debt. But sometimes we also look at it from another angle. This deficit: Richmond Hospital should have been built long ago. We're already 50 years late. This is the price our generation is paying for not investing enough in the past.

[0:23] The next four years: water security

So over the next four years, in terms of planning ahead, what new plans will you put forward? In BC, the mountain snow is melting really fast because of the greenhouse effect, so our water storage isn't in good shape now. I'm also worried that in the future we'll face droughts and floods, and food shortages too. I hope we can work with the government and really find ways to protect our future water security. That way, our society can be stable in the future. There was hardly any snow last year. Right. Barely any snow last year. This year, if I remember right, starting in May or June, we couldn't freely wash our cars. So water is slowly becoming a big problem.

[0:59] What the trade war taught us

Our biggest water use is actually agriculture. Farming uses the most. If we don't protect our water properly, and farms run short of water, we'll end up with food shortages. We also know that now, our trade war with Trump — that trade war reminds us of one thing: we must... we use something called Economic Sovereignty, meaning we need to be economically independent. We need to diversify our economy, so that we won't be tied down by any one side.

[1:18] Disaster readiness in low-lying Richmond

Richmond is actually low-lying land. Whether it's an earthquake or otherwise, does Richmond have disaster and earthquake preparedness plans and measures? I also know Richmond seems to still lack Urban Search and Rescue. It's a team that specializes in what to do if a big earthquake hits and buildings collapse, how to send people in to rescue others. That department hasn't been set up? It's not that it doesn't exist. Burnaby has one, but Richmond doesn't. I think for Richmond, I hope that for Richmond I push a bit, because if the bridges collapse, we're stuck. When disaster strikes, I think if you want to get out of Richmond, it's very, very hard. Because of traffic jams. And all sorts of things. Right. Very hard. And when lives are at stake, like I said, when it's about saving lives, we have to fight for every minute, every second. So we hope... I hope that if I have the honour, I'll fight for Richmond to get Urban Search and Rescue funding and the staff we should have here. Great. I think you're thinking very long-term.

[2:07] Rising homelessness

But I also know that now the community faces another big issue: the number of homeless people in Richmond is growing very fast. Back in 2023, as we know, at Richmond's Brighouse Park, some homeless people suddenly set up tents. When I found out about it, I called a meeting with federal and city officials, provincial officials, various community services and the RCMP. Because it happened so fast, we couldn't cope right away. So I was glad the city decided then to step up and say we'd first extend the emergency weather shelter. So I hope to use this opportunity to keep helping our community reduce the number of homeless, help seniors on fixed incomes stay in their homes, and care for women facing domestic violence, so they can escape it. We also hope that people with unstable mental health or people dealing with addiction can find a safe place to settle, so they're not roaming the streets, wandering around. That wandering issue. Another key point is that many of our homeless people are women. For women living outside on their own, it's very dangerous, and it's very sad. They're often exploited, coerced and exploited. So we hope caring people in the community will work with us to care for every one of them. After all, everyone is someone else's father, mother, brother or sister.

[3:21] Why he lost in 2024

What went wrong last time? At the time, people were very unhappy about supervised injection sites in many communities. And even though I stepped up back then, because city council passed it 7 to 2, and through the province, we blocked it, people were still unhappy about it, so emotions ran very high. Richmond didn't want it back then, so we took those concerns to Vancouver Coastal Health to ask them. Their experts and doctors back then said Richmond's death rate was low, the addiction rate was low. No need, not the... The numbers. No need, right. Not the numbers. So first, I spoke out. Second, I also hoped, through education and working with the community, to keep it down. But back then, many voters wanted me to say I'd never accept it. But from a government's standpoint, we can't flatly reject any life-saving measure. So what I said at the time, personally, was that I hoped we'd rely on community efforts to lower the death rate and addiction rate.

[4:11] An election two years early

This time, Premier David Eby called an early election. What's your view on this? Privately speaking, I was hoping he'd wait until after the civic election. I wanted to finish my civic campaign. So I hoped to see the civic race through and then talk about any provincial opportunity after that. You were originally running for mayor. For mayor. But it was because they wanted me in the provincial race that I was called on to run. Will you still run in the civic election? No, no, I won't. I think as a candidate, if you have a foot in both camps, it's not fair to the community. If you win both, which do you pick? That's not reasonable for them. We face many new challenges, like tariffs, our economic downturn, rising oil prices, and the troubles facing the world economy. We also hope to diversify our trade. All this needs a capable government to take things forward. Although for me, timing-wise, I'd rather the election weren't now, I can understand why he needed to call it now. It's not something anyone wants, but when it's necessary, this hard decision has to be made.

[5:11] A new bridge, ten years away

Take today's traffic, especially on Fridays: the bridge in Richmond basically gets badly jammed. I'd heard before that another bridge would be built, which would take about ten years to complete. What do you think about that? You're right. I think for the BC NDP, what's unfortunate is that when we took over the provincial government, Richmond Hospital was designed for just 50,000 people, but we already had 200,000 people by then. So a government can save money, but when infrastructure doesn't keep up, in the end you pay that debt in the future. That is, if your hospital isn't adequate, then when people need a hospital, it can't keep up. Because these things should have been done long ago. So back to your question: why build a bridge? If we need a bridge, we should do it as early as possible, not keep delaying. But as a government, we also have to consider whether the budget can afford it.

[6:03] Nine years in government — and the deficit

The NDP's deficit after nine years in government is fairly serious. What's your view? I think anyone, whether they're from the NDP, the Conservatives, the Greens or the Liberals, none of us wants to see a deficit. Nobody should want a deficit, because a deficit means our kids will have to pay that debt. But sometimes we also look at it from another angle. This deficit: like I just said, Richmond Hospital should have been built long ago. We're already 50 years late. If you can imagine, if it had been built 50 years ago, today's deficit wouldn't be ours to bear. Not enough schools, not enough hospitals, not enough doctors. It's all a problem. This is all needed infrastructure that never got done. This is the price our generation is paying for not investing enough in the past. So we have debt now. Of course we don't want debt. And we want them to rein in the debt. But I think another important point is that infrastructure investment we need still has to be made. The infrastructure that should be built, we still need to invest in our infrastructure. Great. It's been an in-depth talk today. Thank you.