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Ida Chong Politician

Ida Chong (Chinese: 張杏芳; pinyin: Zhāng Xìngfāng) was previously British Columbia's Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and was Minister Responsible for the Asia-Pacific Initiative as well as Minister of Technology, Trade, and Economic Development; Minister of Community Services; and Minister Responsible for Women's and Senior's Services (June 2005 - June 2008); Minister of Advanced Education (December 2004 to June 2005); and Minister of State for Women's and Senior's Services (January - December 2004). She was appointed Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development in March 2011.Chong was the BC Liberal MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head. She was first elected in 1996 and was re-elected in 2001, 2005, and 2009.Born in and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Chong began her political career in 1993 as a municipal councillor for the District of Saanich. She ran her own accounting firm with business partner Karen Kesteloo and is a fellow of the Certified General Accountant of BC (FCGA). She was awarded a CGA-BC lifetime membership in September 2014.On Sept. 18, 2014, Chong announced her intention to run for mayor of the City of Victoria in the November 2014 municipal election which she subsequently lost, coming a distant third to new mayor, Lisa Helps and previous mayor Dean Fortin. While Chong lost badly, it was widely speculated that she knew she could not win but instead wanted to ensure previous mayor Fortin, who ran a campaign primarily with backing of the New Democratic Party (NDP), would not win. Chong successfully set the ballot question based on Fortin's mishandling of the Johnson Street Bridge Replacement Project but simply did not have enough voters to make an impact. Fortin ultimately lost to Helps by a mere 89 votes. While Chong's running in a known left-wing municipal election after a long and successful career as a Provincial Cabinet Minister was baffling to many, the speculation is that Chong knew she could pull votes from the moderate Fortin, with a long-term strategy to strengthen the Green/Progressive vote in the region and province thus weakening the New Democratic Party by splitting the leftist vote.