Mable Elmore

Background

Elmore's mother immigrated to Canada from the Philippines in 1965 and met her father, an Irish Canadian manager at a pulp and paper mill, while in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. A couple of years later Mable was born in Langley. The family moved to Nova Scotia and they lived in Turkey for a brief time, but they spent most of Elmore's youth living in Manitoba. It was at her high school in Winnipeg, learning about South African apartheid, that she became politically aware and active. Following high school, she attended the University of British Columbia studying physical education and volunteered at the BC Philippine Women Centre, which turned into a full-time job. Several years later, Elmore started working as a bus driver for the Coast Mountain Bus Company. She was a vocal advocate for social justice issues and worker rights. She was active with the Vancouver and District Labour Council, the BC Federation of Labour, and in her union, the CAW Local 111. She helped organize peace and anti-war marches in Vancouver.

Provincial politics

With the 2009 provincial election approaching, and incumbent New Democratic MLA David Chudnovsky retiring, Elmore put her name forward as a candidate for the NDP nomination in the Vancouver-Kensington riding. Due an internal BC NDP rule requiring that the subsequent NDP candidate be female in ridings where there is a retiring male NDP MLA, only women could be nominated. Elmore's only challenger was former BC Teachers' Federation president Jinny Sims, whom Elmore defeated in the March 2009 nomination election. Within hours of her nomination, copies of a 2004 interview with Elmore published in an online magazine, called Seven Oaks, were distributed in which, in reference to her anti-war activism within a union environment, Elmore identified "vocal Zionists in our worksites" as a challenge. This was viewed as a disparaging remark and party leader Carole James asked Elmore to make a public apology. The general election was held in May when Elmore was running against realtor and former radio host Syrus Lee for the BC Liberal Party and engineer Doug Warkentin for the BC Green Party. Elmore had the support of many in the Filipino Canadian community who helped campaign for her. Elmore's campaign manager helped thwart an attempt to circumvent election laws by the Kash Heed campaign, a BC Liberal candidate in a neighbouring riding, after she was informed of Heed's intent to mail, in the Vancouver-Kensington riding, anti-NDP pamphlets, which did not include the proper disclosure and documentation. Regardless, Elmore went on to win the general election with 53% of the vote, though her party lost to the BC Liberals who formed a majority government with the NDP as the official opposition. Elmore was the first Filipino Canadian to be elected as a Member of the BC Legislative Assembly, and only the second (after Jenn McGinn) openly lesbian member.

As the 39th Parliament began, Elmore was assigned the role of deputy critic on the Ministry of Children and Family Development, with fellow NDP MLA Maurine Karagianis as the full-time critic. In this role, Elmore identified financial misstatements by Solicitor-General Kash Heed which forced Heed and the Premier to reverse a planned $440,000 cut to domestic violence programs. She was appointed to the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth in all four sessions of the Parliament. In 2012, she became the Critic for ICBC and Deputy Critic for Finance. She also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services in the third and fourth session.

Seeking federal NDP nomination for 2015 election

In December 2014, Elmore announced that she was seeking the New Democratic Party nomination in Vancouver East for the 2015 federal election, seeking to replace Libby Davies as the Member of Parliament for the riding. In January 2015, Jenny Kwan announced that she was also seeking the party's nomination in the riding. On March 22, 2015, Elmore lost the nomination race to Kwan.