Jun 18, 2024 – North Shore News

Had you asked Bowinn Ma during her five-year position as project engineer with Vancouver Airport Authority, which she landed in April 2012, if she had any plans to enter electoral politics, she would have said, “absolutely not.”

However, she had a change of heart. Ma was elected in May 2017 as MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale and represents approximately 60,000 constituents. She’s particularly active on issues of housing, transportation, child care, education, health care and social services.

Additionally, she serves British Columbians as Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.

“The decision to go into public service was more a calling than something I planned,” says Ma.

“I started to understand how government decisions were impacting my community and the people I cared about, and knew I had to put some skin in the game.”

Her path from engineering to MLA was fairly rapid; Ma went from not knowing who her MLA was, to being the MLA in less than two-and-a-half years, and explains why it was important to get involved.

“There’s an entire segment of our community that needs the most help from government, who at the same time don’t often get their voices heard by politicians because they’re focused on getting through the day, raising their families and keeping on top of their careers.”

“I remember how intimidating it felt to approach an elected official before I became one, and I don’t want that to be the case for people in our community,” she says.

Read the full article at nsnews.com.