Ken Beck Lee landed on Canada’s shores with $1,400 in his pocket, an engineering degree from a Korean university and very little command of the English language.

Today, more than 30 years later, Lee’s is very much the successful immigrant story.

His career as an environmental engineer earned him a seat on the UN Climate Change Agency; he recently sold a sideline business he started from the ground up; and he’s running as the Liberal candidate in this month’s New Westminster-Coquitlam federal byelection.

Despite never having been involved in politics, Lee decided to run simply because people asked him to.

“Since I came to Canada, I worked hard to be successful in engineering. I worked hard to be successful in business. Then when people asked me to run, I thought I had to help out and give back,” said Lee, a New Westminster resident and the eldest candidate in the byelection race.

“I feel I have a lot to give back.”

Lee’s quiet demeanour hides the candidate’s appetite for hard work and a never-give-up approach. He spends hours canvassing New Westminster-Coquitlam residents, knocking on doors and attending events. Last weekend, he said he had knocked on 20,000 doors.

Lee came to Canada with his wife and grandmother after being separated from his mother and father during the Korean War.

While he would eventually master English, getting his engineering degree recognized was another matter. He was told that his degree, from a prestigious university in Seoul, South Korea, was barely worth the paper it was printed on.

Through friends, he enlisted the help of John Munro, then Liberal minister of Indian affairs under then prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Munro worked on his behalf and, two years after coming to Canada in 1975, Lee was allowed to take the qualifying exams and passed.

His dealings with Munro were the start of his relationship with and long-term support for the Liberal party.

It also helped him realize that people sometimes need a leg up and governments should be there to help.

Understandably, one of his main issues during the byelection campaign is job creation.

He says the Conservative government’s economic stimulus package has taken too long to reach B.C. and, as a result, more jobs have been lost. In the meantime, the government continues to collect unemployment insurance taxes, then denies Canadians benefits and funnels the money into general revenue, he said.

One of his solutions is to have a portion of the GST and gas taxes be rededicated.

“They should go to the local economy where they can have the most impact,” he said.

• Lee’s campaign website is www.kenlee.ca.

mmcquillan@newwestnewsleader.com