Douglas Jung CM OBC CD (Chinese: 鄭天華; February 25, 1924 – January 4, 2002) was a Canadian lawyer, politician, military officer, and Special Operations Executive secret agent.[1] He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Vancouver Centre from 1957 to 1962, as part of the Progressive Conservative caucus. He was the first member of a visible minority elected to the Parliament of Canada, as well as the first MP of Chinese and Asian descent in the House of Commons of Canada.
Early life, military career and education
Douglas Jung was born in Victoria, British Columbia, on February 25, 1924.[2] During his childhood, the Government of Canada passed numerous pieces of legislation that disenfranchised Chinese in Canada. Jung and a group of young men from British Columbia enlisted in the Canadian Army during World War II in order to change the status of Chinese Canadians. Jung explained his reasons for enlisting as: "Some of us realized that unless we volunteered to serve Canada during this hour of need, we would be in a very difficult position after the war ended to demand our rights as Canadian citizens because the Canadian government would say to us, "What did you do during the war when everybody else was out fighting for Canada? What did you do?" So a few of us volunteered to serve, and my group was probably the first to join up."[3]
World War II
Although Jung enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1939, he did not receive his first assignment until 1944, mainly because politicians in Ottawa and Victoria did not want to deal with the issues of enfranchising the Chinese after the war. However, Winston Churchill's wartime Special Operations Executive recruited Jung and a group of Chinese-Canadian soldiers into Force 136, a team of secret agents who deployed to British Malaya to train local guerrillas to resist the Japanese Imperial Army occupying Malaya and Singapore. The mission for the Asian Canadian soldiers was known as Operation Oblivion. They received parachute training at Australia and prepared themselves to fight in South West Pacific. However, the operation came to an abrupt cancellation. Jung instead deployed to Japanese-occupied British Borneo and New Guinea, and led his troops in search and rescue missions.[1][4]
Post-WWII
After the war, Chinese in Canada were enfranchised in 1947. Veterans Affairs Canada provided funds so that Jung and his Chinese-Canadian comrades could obtain a university education. Jung graduated from the University of British Columbia with a bachelor of arts degree, followed by a bachelor of laws degree in 1953.[5] He was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1954, then set up an immigration practice in Vancouver.[5][6]
Political career
Jung had vowed not to join the Liberal Party of Canada because of its racist legislation against Chinese in the past. Following the 1955 death of George Churchill Moxham, who represented Vancouver Centre in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Jung was nominated as the BC Progressive Conservative candidate for the riding. He lost to Social Credit candidate Leslie Peterson in the January 1956 by-election, but still became the first Canadian of Chinese descent to run for a seat provincially or federally.[5][7]
He then ran in the 1957 federal election as a candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party under John Diefenbaker, and defeated the incumbent Liberal candidate Ralph Campney to become MP for Vancouver Centre.[8] In his maiden speech in the House of Commons, he urged Canada to take a leading role in serving as a bridge to the Pacific Rim countries. He was handily re-elected in the following year's federal election.[8]
Jung's other achievements include taking part in the debate on the implementation in 1960 by Ellen Fairclough, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, of the Chinese Adjustment Statement Program that granted amnesty to illegal immigrants from Hong Kong, also known as "paper sons". He also represented Canada in the United Nations as an alternate member of the Legal Delegation to the United Nations.[5][6]
Jung was defeated in the 1962 federal election by Liberal John Robert Nicholson;[8] voters in Vancouver's Chinatown community had become disillusioned by his handling of the amnesty issue, in which they viewed Jung as siding with government authorities against Chinese Canadians.[9] Progressive Conservatives had also tried to strike 500-600 Chinese voters from the rolls in order to mitigate this issue.[9] He returned to his legal practice after losing re-election;[6] he ran again in the 1963 and 1965 federal elections, but lost to Nicholson both times.[8]
Honours and other achievements
His profusion of honours included the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia, the highest honours a citizen can receive from the federal and provincial governments, respectively.[10][11] Other awards came from the Chinese Benevolent Association, S.U.C.C.E.S.S., Chinese Canadian National Council and Chinese Association in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Thunder Bay and Toronto, Ontario, as well as the Quebec Japanese Canadian Citizenship Association in Montreal.
Jung was also a prominent figure in the community, especially the Vancouver Chinese community. They include: Life President of Army Navy Air Force Veterans in Canada Unit #280; patron of S.U.C.C.E.S.S.; director of the Vancouver Symphony; deputy director of the Governor General's 1992 Regional Celebration of Canada 125th Anniversary; director of the Far East Relations of the Former Parliamentarians Association; and the President of Japan Karate Association of Canada, which awarded him a sixth degree Black Belt.
On September 7, 2007, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity Jason Kenney announced that the federal building located at 401 Burrard Street in Downtown Vancouver would be named after Douglas Jung, as the first Chinese-Canadian elected to Parliament.[12]
Death
While marching with fellow veterans in 1995, Jung suffered a serious heart attack. He never completely recovered and died in 2002 due to related complications.[13][14]
Electoral record
| 1965 Canadian federal election: Vancouver Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Jack R. Nicholson | 9,008 | 40.08 | +0.75 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Douglas Jung | 6,248 | 27.80 | −2.73 | ||||
| New Democratic | Lyle Kristiansen | 5,184 | 23.07 | −1.13 | ||||
| Social Credit | William John McIntyre | 1,806 | 8.04 | +2.10 | ||||
| Independent Social Credit | James B. Wisbey | 228 | 1.01 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes | 22,474 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | +1.74 | ||||||
| 1963 Canadian federal election: Vancouver Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Jack R. Nicholson | 9,472 | 39.33 | +3.73 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Douglas Jung | 7,353 | 30.53 | −0.94 | ||||
| New Democratic | Margaret Erickson | 5,826 | 24.19 | +0.54 | ||||
| Social Credit | Bevis Walters | 1,430 | 5.94 | −2.29 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 24,081 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | +2.34 | ||||||
| 1962 Canadian federal election: Vancouver Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Jack R. Nicholson | 7,697 | 35.61 | +18.43 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Douglas Jung | 6,803 | 31.47 | −29.95 | ||||
| New Democratic | Margaret Erickson | 5,113 | 23.65 | +9.73 | ||||
| Social Credit | F. George J. Hahn | 1,779 | 8.23 | +3.60 | ||||
| Independent | Burton V. White | 224 | 1.04 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes | 21,616 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Liberal gain from Progressive Conservative | Swing | +24.19 | ||||||
| Change for the New Democrats is based on the Co-operative Commonwealth. | ||||||||
| 1958 Canadian federal election: Vancouver Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Douglas Jung | 14,044 | 61.43 | +19.92 | ||||
| Liberal | Lyon Ward | 3,927 | 17.18 | −7.29 | ||||
| Co-operative Commonwealth | Alan Judge | 3,183 | 13.92 | +3.80 | ||||
| Social Credit | Cyril White | 1,059 | 4.63 | −16.87 | ||||
| Labor–Progressive | Maurice Rush | 650 | 2.84 | +0.43 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 22,863 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Progressive Conservative hold | Swing | +13.60 | ||||||
| 1957 Canadian federal election: Vancouver Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Douglas Jung | 9,087 | 41.50 | +32.86 | ||||
| Liberal | Ralph Campney | 5,357 | 24.47 | −16.37 | ||||
| Social Credit | Cyril White | 4,707 | 21.50 | −2.96 | ||||
| Co-operative Commonwealth | William James Dennison | 2,216 | 10.12 | −12.21 | ||||
| Labor–Progressive | Maurice Rush | 528 | 2.41 | −1.33 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 21,895 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Progressive Conservative gain from Liberal | Swing | +24.62 | ||||||
See also
References
- ^ a b W. Chong. "Biography of Captain Douglas Jung SOA". Burma Star Association. Archived from the original on January 2, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- ^ Edward Butts (February 11, 2019). "Douglas Jung". thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved January 6, 2021..
- ^ Lowe, Wesley. "Douglas Jung". Veterans Affairs Canada. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- ^ "Force 136: Chinese Canadian Heroes". Storyhive. November 10, 2017. Archived from the original on April 4, 2018. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- ^ a b c d "Douglas Jung, OC, OBC (LLB '53)". Peter A. Allard School of Law. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
- ^ a b c Price, John. "Douglas Jung". University of Victoria. Archived from the original on December 7, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
- ^ "Electoral History of British Columbia 1871-1986" (PDF). Elections BC. p. 264. Retrieved September 25, 2025.
- ^ a b c d "Profile - Jung, Douglas". Library of Parliament of Canada. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
- ^ a b Roy, Patricia (2007). The Triumph of Citizenship: The Japanese and Chinese in Canada, 1941-67 (1st ed.). Vancouver: UBC Press. pp. 284–287. ISBN 9780774813808.
- ^ "Douglas Jung, C.M., C.D., LL.B." Governor General of Canada. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
- ^ "1997 Recipient: Douglas Jung – Vancouver". Government of British Columbia. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
- ^ "Blocked from polls as 'Oriental,' he now cherishes his vote". Retrieved April 22, 2021.
- ^ "Lawyer-MP led a life full of firsts". Retrieved April 22, 2021.
- ^ Fong, Petti (January 9, 2002). "First Chinese-Canadian MP changed stereotypes". Vancouver Sun.
