Alexa Loo

Alexa Loo
盧仙泳
Alexa Loo
Member of the Richmond, British Columbia City Council
Incumbent
Assumed office
2014
Personal details
Born (1972-10-06) October 6, 1972 (age 52)[1]
Vancouver, British Columbia
NationalityCanadian
Political partyONE Richmond (municipal)
Other political
affiliations		BC Liberal (provincial)
Spouse
Ari Goosen
​
(m. 2010)​
Children2
ResidenceRichmond, British Columbia
Alma materUniversity of British Columbia
Profession
  • accountant
  • snowboarder
Military service
AllegianceCanada
Branch Canadian Army (primary reserves)
Years of service2022–present
Rank Lieutenant-colonel
Unit39 Service Battalion[2]
Sports career
NationalityCanadian
Height168 cm (5 ft 6 in)[1]
SportSnowboarding
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese盧仙泳
Simplified Chinese卢仙泳
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLú Xiānyǒng
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingLou4 Sin1 Wing6

Alexa Loo (born October 6, 1972) is a Canadian athlete, accountant and politician, serving as city councillor for Richmond, British Columbia since 2014. As a snowboarder, she competed in the parallel giant slalom at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics.[3]

Early life and family

Loo was born in Vancouver and raised in the adjacent city of Richmond, British Columbia.[1][4] Her father is Chinese-Canadian, and her mother is of French-English ancestry.[5] She attended the University of British Columbia, where she competed as both a rower and swimmer for the Thunderbirds.[6] After graduating with a bachelor of commerce degree in 1994, she joined accounting firm KPMG, eventually gaining the chartered accountant designation.[6][7]

Loo married Ari Goosen shortly after the 2010 Winter Olympics; the couple has two sons.[8][9]

Snowboarding career

She began snowboarding at 15 years old, and joined a racing club in 1995.[6] By the 2000s, she was coached by Mark Fawcett;[7] she also counted Jasey-Jay Anderson among her mentors.[5]

In 2006 she won a bronze medal in the woman's parallel giant slalom (PGS) at the World Cup in Plan de Corones, Italy, becoming the first Canadian woman to earn a World Cup medal in alpine snowboarding.[7][1] At that year's Winter Olympics in Turin, she finished 20th overall in the women's PGS qualifying runs.[1][6][10]

After finishing 12th in women's PGS at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver,[1][10] she announced her retirement from competitive snowboarding in July that year.[11]

Other career highlights include:[citation needed]

  • Finished ninth in PGS at the World Cup Lac Beauport, Quebec.
  • Gold medalist in PGS at the Nor Am Cup in Copper Mountain (Colorado).
  • Eighth in PGS at the 2005 World Cup, Tandadalen, Sweden.
  • 16th in PGS at the 2005 World Cup in Sapporo-Makomanai, Japan.
  • 17th in PGS at the 2005 World Cup in Bardonecchia, Italy.
  • Silver medalist in parallel slalom at the 2005 NorAm Cup PSL, Sun Peaks, British Columbia.
  • 14th in PGS at the 2004 World Cup, Soelden, Austria.

Loo served as the athlete representative to the International Ski Federation (FIS) and for many years sat on the board of directors of AthletesCAN [12] - the association of Canada's national team athletes.

Politics

Loo ran for Richmond City Council for the first time in the 2011 municipal election; she finished in 11th place and was not elected.[13] She ran again in the 2014 municipal election as an independent candidate,[13] this time winning a council seat by finishing eighth overall.[14] She was re-elected for a second term in 2018.[15]

In September 2020, Loo became the British Columbia Liberal Party candidate for the riding of Richmond South Centre, in a bid to replace retiring member of the Legislative Assembly Linda Reid.[16] In the October 24, 2020 provincial election, she lost to New Democratic Party candidate Henry Yao by a margin of 179 votes.[17][18]

She was re-elected to Richmond City Council for a third term in 2022, this time running as a candidate for ONE Richmond.[9]

Electoral history

Provincial elections

2020 British Columbia general election: Richmond South Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±% Expenditures
New Democratic Henry Yao 6,743 50.67 +10.39 $37,030.55
Liberal Alexa Loo 6,564 49.33 +0.61 $50,107.69
Total valid votes 13,307 100.00 –
Rejected ballots 207 1.53 +0.34
Turnout 13,514 40.12 −6.58
Registered voters 33,685
New Democratic gain from Liberal Swing +4.89
Source: Elections BC[19][20]

Municipal elections

Top 8 candidates elected — Incumbents marked with "(X)". Elected members' names are in bold

2018 British Columbia municipal elections: Richmond City Council
Party Council candidate Vote %
  RITE Richmond Carol Day (X) 20,871 7.01
  Richmond Citizens' Association Harold Steves (X) 19,136 6.43
  Richmond Community Coalition Chak Au (X) 18,026 6.05
  Richmond First Bill McNulty (X) 17,242 5.79
  Richmond Citizens' Association Kelly Greene 16,464 5.53
  Richmond First Linda McPhail (X) 15,521 5.21
  RITE Richmond Michael Wolfe 13,627 4.58
  Independent Alexa Loo (X) 13,212 4.44
  Richmond First Derek Dang (X) 13,115 4.40
  Richmond First Andy Hobbs 12,336 4.14
  Richmond Citizens' Association Judie Schneider 11,672 3.92
  Richmond Community Coalition Ken Johnston (X) 11,161 3.75
  Richmond Community Coalition Jonathan Ho 11,140 3.74
  Richmond Citizens' Association Jack Trovato 10,915 3.67
  Richmond First Sunny Ho 8,933 3.00
  RITE Richmond Niti Sharma 8,917 2.99
  RITE Richmond Henry Yao 8,467 2.84
  Richmond First Peter Liu 8,357 2.81
  Richmond Community Coalition Parm Bains 7,973 2.68
  Independent John Roston 7,961 2.67
  Richmond Community Coalition Melissa Zhang 7,708 2.38
  Independent Kerry Starchuk 6,959 2.34
  Independent Jason Tarnow 5,720 1.92
  Independent Adil Awan 4,278 1.44
  Independent Manjit Singh 4,134 1.39
  Independent Dennis Page 3,478 1.17
  Independent Andy Chiang 3,337 1.12
  Independent Theresa Head 3,251 1.09
  Independent Patrick J. Saunders 2,241 0.75
  Independent Zhe Zhang 2,241 0.75
2014 British Columbia municipal elections: Richmond City Council
Party Council candidate Vote %
  Richmond First Bill McNulty 17,417 7.08
  Richmond Community Coalition Chak Au 15,742 6.40
  Richmond First Linda McPhail 15,679 6.37
  Richmond First Derek Dang 14,844 6.03
  Independent Harold Steves 14,417 5.86
  Rite Richmond Carol Day 13,389 5.44
  Richmond Community Coalition Ken Johnston 12,792 5.20
  Independent Alexa Loo 12,595 5.12
  Richmond First Andy Hobbs 12,013 4.88
  Rite Richmond Michael Wolfe 11,765 4.78
  Richmond Community Coalition Dan Baxter 9,952 4.04
  Richmond Community Coalition Kirby Graeme 9,869 4.01
  Richmond Community Coalition Sal Bhullar 8,965 3.64
  Independent Dave Semple 8,566 3.48
  Richmond First Elsa Wong 8,500 3.45
  Richmond Community Coalition Helen Quan 8,375 3.40
  Richmond Reform Sunny Ho 6,926 2.81
  Renew Richmond Grace Tsang 6,222 2.53
  Independent Roy Sakata 5,824 2.37
  Independent Jerome Dickey 4,708 1.91
  Independent Henry Juin-Hsien Yao 4,412 1.79
  Independent Jennifer Huang 3,977 1.62
  Renew Richmond Adil Awan 3,587 1.46
  Independent Janos Bergman 3,248 1.32
  Independent Don Montgomery 2,997 1.22
  Independent Laura Nastasa 2,295 0.93
  Independent Patrick S. Saunders 2,108 0.86
  Independent Kristian von Schalburg 1,619 0.66
  Independent Gary Yuill 1,406 0.57
  Independent Lee Gildemeester 1,258 0.51
  Independent Jun L. Wuyan 694 0.28

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Alexa Loo - Team Canada - Official Olympic Team Website". Canadian Olympic Committee. 18 September 2011. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  2. ^ "Alexa Loo — Biography". Alexa Loo Campaign. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  3. ^ Olympic results
  4. ^ "Alexa Loo: Chinese-only signs in Richmond 'ridiculous'". CBC News. 2014-11-21. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  5. ^ a b "Eleven Minutes With Alexa Loo, Olympic Snowboarding Veteran". Scout Magazine. 2009-12-01. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  6. ^ a b c d Drexhage, Glenn (February 8, 2010). "Hooked on racing: Grad's grace under pressure". UBC Reports. University of British Columbia. Archived from the original on 14 September 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  7. ^ a b c Christie, Jack (2009-11-04). "Snowboarder Alexa Loo is persistence personified". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  8. ^ Booth, Mark (2014-01-29). "Olympian turns her attention to Kidsport Richmond". Richmond News. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  9. ^ a b Campbell, Alan (2022-10-08). "Municipal election: Mayoral, city council candidate profiles". Richmond News. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  10. ^ a b "Alexa Loo Biography". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  11. ^ "Veteran snowboarder Alexa Loo retires". The Canadian Press, via CBC Sports. 2010-07-22. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  12. ^ "AthletesCAN website - Prior Board Members List". Archived from the original on 2014-02-13. Retrieved 2014-11-19.
  13. ^ a b Wood, Graeme (2014-09-16). "Alexa Loo to make second attempt at city council". Richmond News. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  14. ^ Wood, Graeme (2014-11-14). "Community activist Carol Day and Olympian Loo win seats on Richmond council". Richmond News. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  15. ^ "Veteran Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie wins sixth term". Vancouver Sun. 16 November 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  16. ^ Rantanen, Maria (2020-09-21). "Updated: Richmond Coun. Alexa Loo to run provincially". Richmond News. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  17. ^ Rantanen, Maria (2020-11-07). "Update: NDP secures third provincial seat in Richmond". Richmond News. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  18. ^ Larsen, Karin (2020-11-07). "Projected Green seat flipped to Liberals following tightest race in B.C." CBC News. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  19. ^ "Statement of Votes — 42nd Provincial General Election" (PDF). Elections BC. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  20. ^ "Election Financing Reports". Elections BC. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
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