Steveston—Richmond East

Steveston—Richmond East covers the eastern half of the City of Richmond and the historic fishing village of Steveston, situated on islands in the Fraser River delta roughly 30 minutes south of downtown Vancouver. Richmond's low-lying terrain — averaging just one metre above sea level — makes it one of the most flood-vulnerable communities in Canada. The riding encompasses suburban neighbourhoods, agricultural land protected under the Agricultural Land Reserve, and Steveston's waterfront heritage district, where a century-old cannery and boardwalk draw visitors year-round. The 2021 census recorded a population of approximately 89,700.

Candidates

Parm Bains (Liberal) — Born in Victoria, British Columbia, to a Jat Sikh family whose parents immigrated from Mahilpur, Punjab. Bains worked as an instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and accumulated over 20 years of experience in corporate communications, public policy development, and government relations. He served as Vice Chair of the Richmond Community Foundation and volunteered extensively in Richmond's sports community as a coach and mentor.

Kenny Chiu (Conservative) — The incumbent MP, first elected in 2019. Chiu immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong in 1982 and studied computer science at the University of Saskatchewan before working as a software engineer. He entered local politics as a Richmond school board trustee in 2011. In Parliament, Chiu was an outspoken critic of Beijing's crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong and introduced a private member's bill aimed at curbing foreign interference in Canadian elections.

Jack Trovato (NDP) — A Richmond resident of over 40 years and career educator. Trovato holds a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University, a Bachelor of Education from UBC, and a Master of Education from SFU. He is the national recipient of the 2002–2003 Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence and spearheaded petitions to restrict house sizes on farmland and to approve an acute care tower at Richmond Hospital.

Jennifer Singh (PPC) — A construction management professional who studied civil and structural engineering at BCIT. Singh worked as a project manager negotiating multi-million-dollar construction projects across Canada and Australia before becoming Vice President of a mining company with operations in Mongolia.

About the Riding

Steveston—Richmond East has one of the most distinctive demographic profiles in British Columbia. Nearly half the population identifies as ethnically Chinese, and over 10,000 residents immigrated from Hong Kong. English is spoken as a mother tongue by approximately 31 percent of the population, while Cantonese and Mandarin are widely spoken at home. This linguistic and cultural composition shaped local politics significantly in 2021, as questions of foreign interference and diaspora politics became central campaign issues in the riding.

Steveston's heritage district is a cornerstone of the riding's identity. The Gulf of Georgia Cannery, a National Historic Site, anchors a waterfront that was once the centre of British Columbia's salmon canning industry. Japanese Canadian residents played a foundational role in Steveston's development through the first half of the twentieth century, though the community was devastated in 1942 when approximately 2,600 Japanese and Japanese Canadian residents were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to internment camps.

Flood risk and sea-level rise were among the most pressing local concerns. Richmond's position at the mouth of the Fraser River, barely above sea level, made climate adaptation a tangible policy issue rather than an abstraction. The city invested in dike upgrades and flood mitigation infrastructure, but residents and candidates alike debated whether the pace of investment was sufficient given the accelerating threat.

Housing affordability was acute. Richmond's proximity to Vancouver and its international airport drove land values upward, and agricultural land in the riding faced ongoing development pressure despite ALR protections. Richmond Hospital's capacity and the need for expanded acute care services were also prominent campaign issues, with Trovato and other candidates pointing to overcrowding and long wait times.