Lee, Loretta
Loretta Lee’s family history in Canada dates back more than a century. Both her paternal and maternal grandmothers arrived in Calgary, Alberta, in the early 1900s as two of the first Chinese women to arrive in the city. Loretta’s mother, Nellie Ho Lem, was very active in her community as a member of the United Church and the Lady Laurier Club, a women’s organization for the Liberal Party. Loretta grew up in Calgary and in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, where the family lived for a number of years. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Loretta has actively pursued community work and has been a volunteer with the Sien Lok Society in Calgary since its inception.
In addition to raising her children and helping her husband with bookkeeping, Nellie Ho Lem filled her busy schedule with community and political work. This impassioned speech about democratic participation was presumably delivered to the Lady Laurier club. Civic participation is something that the Chinese community did not take for granted. After years of lobbying and campaigning, Chinese Canadians were granted cross-Canada voting rights in 1947; before that time, voting rights for Chinese Canadians varied by province.
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