WALLACE PONG

Professional and community background

Wallace Pong is an international businessman with decades of experience in global trade, business management, and cross-cultural communication. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Business Administration, Wallace brings an international perspective on trade, economic development, and how Richmond can better position itself in an increasingly competitive global economy.

Fluent in English and Chinese, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Suzhounese, Wallace has spent much of his career working with people, businesses, and partners from different countries and cultural backgrounds. His international business experience has taught him the importance of strong management, long-term planning, open communication, and building relationships across cultures.

Until about ten months ago, Wallace was an ordinary citizen approaching retirement, with no intention of entering politics. That changed when a neighbour knocked on his door and asked for help opposing a controversial drug-tolerant low-barrier housing proposal.

What began as helping one neighbourhood quickly grew into something much larger.

Through WeVote and community advocacy, Wallace has since worked with residents in Surrey, Burnaby, White Rock, New Westminster, Vancouver, Richmond, and communities across more than a dozen cities in British Columbia. He has helped ordinary residents organize, understand government processes, speak at public meetings, communicate with elected officials, and make their voices heard on controversial housing, drug, public-safety, and democratic-governance policies.

Those experiences changed Wallace’s understanding of democracy.

He came to believe that democracy cannot mean simply casting a ballot once every four years and then remaining silent. When ordinary people are not meaningfully represented at the decision-making table, their concerns can too easily end up on the menu instead.

Wallace has seen residents spend countless hours writing letters, signing petitions, attending rallies, speaking before councils, and asking governments to listen — yet too often feeling that important decisions had already been made without them.

That is why he decided to run for Richmond City Council with ARCA.

For Wallace, running for office is not the beginning of his community involvement. It is the next step.

Wallace strongly believes that a safe community is the foundation of everything else. Without safety, families cannot thrive, businesses cannot prosper, democracy cannot function at its best, and even the best social and economic goals become difficult to achieve.

He believes protecting democracy requires continuous participation, stronger accountability, and elected representatives who are willing to speak for residents even when doing so is difficult. His goal is to defend residents’ legitimate rights and interests, ensure that government listens before it decides, and bring his international business experience and long-term economic vision to Richmond City Hall.

Wallace wants to help build a Richmond that is safer, more democratic, more accountable, and more prosperous — a city where residents are not simply asked for their votes every four years, but are respected as participants in government every day.