Richmond-Steveston

Richmond-Steveston occupies the southwestern portion of the City of Richmond, encompassing the historic fishing village of Steveston along with newer residential neighbourhoods stretching north and east. The riding had been held by the BC Liberals since 2005, when John Yap succeeded former Attorney General Geoff Plant. Yap won three consecutive elections by comfortable margins, and the 2017 contest would test whether the Liberals could maintain their grip on the riding amid province-wide momentum building for the NDP.

Steveston Village, with its boardwalk, cannery heritage sites, and fishing fleet, gave the riding a distinct identity within the broader suburban landscape of Richmond. The riding also included the residential communities of Ironwood, Gilmore, and parts of Thompson, areas that had seen substantial new housing development during the 2013-2017 term.

Candidates

John Yap (BC Liberal Party) — Born in Singapore to a Hokkien family, Yap immigrated to Richmond in 1986 after earning a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Business Administration from the University of British Columbia. Before entering politics, he volunteered on Geoff Plant's campaigns and served as Plant's campaign chairman in 2001. As an MLA, Yap held several cabinet posts including Minister of State for Climate Action and Minister of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology. He resigned from cabinet in March 2013 following a controversy over ethnic outreach memos targeting ethnic communities for partisan gain, but was re-elected two months later.

Kelly Greene (BC NDP) — Greene held a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from UBC and had worked in accounting and banking firms before leading a team at a local Steveston business. She became politically active in 2016 through a parent group opposing school closures in Richmond. The 2017 provincial election was her first campaign for elected office.

Roy Sakata (BC Green Party) — Sakata was a retired school principal who was born in a Japanese-Canadian internment camp in Bridge River during the Second World War. He was active in community organizations, having served as executive director of the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, and had volunteered with the Rotary Club of Ladner for over two decades. He also volunteered at the Steveston Buddhist Temple.

Local Issues

Housing affordability was the dominant issue across all of Richmond's ridings in 2017, and Steveston was no exception. The historic village area had seen property values climb sharply, pricing out longtime residents and young families. The BC Liberal government's foreign buyers tax, introduced in 2016, applied to the entire Metro Vancouver region including Richmond, but its impact on the market remained a subject of intense debate. The NDP and Greens both proposed expanding and increasing the tax, while the Liberals defended their record of acting to cool the market.

School closures and education funding were particularly sensitive issues in Richmond-Steveston. The 2016 fight against proposed school closures had mobilized parents across the district and directly inspired Kelly Greene's candidacy. The broader question of education funding — following the protracted 2014 teachers' dispute and the Supreme Court of Canada's 2016 ruling restoring class size and composition provisions — resonated strongly with families in the riding.

Environmental stewardship also featured prominently, given Steveston's identity as a fishing community with deep ties to the Fraser River estuary. Concerns about the health of salmon runs, agricultural land protection on neighbouring farmland, and the environmental review process for major projects gave the Green Party a foothold in a riding that had traditionally been a two-party contest.