Maggie Chan

    

Her Excellency Maggie Chan MP PC EC
Picture of Chan in 2018
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sierra
Incumbent
Assumed office November 28, 2022
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Deputy	Kenneth O'Conner
Preceded by	Susan Kwon
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office May 4, 2020 – September 25, 2022
Prime Minister	Susan Kwon
Preceded by	Joe Millard
Succeeded by	Isabelle Huynh
Leader of the Opposition
In office October 16, 2017 – May 4, 2020
Prime Minister	Nemesis Heartwell
Preceded by	Preston Bolivar
Succeeded by	Nemesis Heartwell
Member of the K.S. House of Commons for West San Jose (Santa Clara's 3rd district)
Incumbent
Assumed office October 16, 2017
Preceded by	Ruth Benson
Majority	51,243 (21.2%)
Chairwoman of the House Democratic-Republican Caucus
Incumbent
Assumed office October 16, 2017
Preceded by	Ruth Benson
Leader of the Democratic-Republican Party
Incumbent
Assumed office October 16, 2017
Preceded by	Preston Bolivar (acting)
Personal details
Born	(1981-08-21) August 21, 1981 Oakland, Santa Clara, Kingdom of Sierra
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Domestic partner	Jacob Chan (since 2013)
Alma mater	Mulholland University
Religion	Buddhism

Margaret "Maggie" Chan MP PC EC (born August 21, 1981) is a Sierran politician serving as the 36th and current Prime Minister since November 28, 2022. She is the leader of the Democratic-Republican Party and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the 3rd parliamentary district from Santa Clara (West San Jose) in the House of Commons since 2017. She previously served concurrent position both as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Leader of the House of Commons under Susan Kwon from 2020 to 2022 and served as Leader of the Opposition from 2017 to 2020. Chan has also been Chairwoman of the House Democratic-Republican Caucus since the October 2017 parliamentary elections. Ideologically, she identifies as a progressive liberal and is a member of the House Democratic-Republican Progressive Caucus.

Born in Oakland, Chan grew up in a Chinese Sierran family and was raised in a traditionally Chinese and buddhist household. Growing up in Oakland, she was raised in the coasts of the province across the bay from the nearby province of San Francisco, a province that she frequently visits since her youth. Prior to entering into politics, Chan was a school teacher and was a community organizer for Chinese-Sierrans and other Asian-Sierrans. In 2017, she ran against Ruth Benson and ran as the progressive liberal candidate against Benson and his centrist ideological stance. Chan won the primary and eventually won the House of Commons election beating out her Royalist opponent by 14 points and her Social Democratic opponent by 7. Chan was sworn in as Leader of the Opposition on October 16, 2017 and took over Benson's position and has since moved the House Democratic-Republicans in a more progressive direction and has been more vocal in her opposition to the Royalist-led government, officially known as the Conservative Coalition.

Politically, Chan identifies as a center-left politician and a progressive capitalist favoring capitalism, but supporting government intervention and regulation to address income inequality. Chana also supports raising the minimum wage, raising taxes on wealth Sierrans and corporations, reducing outsourcing, and opposes off-shore drilling off the coasts of Sierra's southern coastal regions. Socially, Chan is ardently liberal supporting LGBT rights, easy access to abortions and opposes restrictions on abortion, immigration reform and addressing minority interests, though she holds mixed thoughts on republicanism. On foreign policy, Chan supports being part of the Conference of American States and is a vocal American unionist. She's also a staunch non-interventionist and is against Sierran support to Hashemite Arabia and other authoritarian regimes that are Sierran and CAS allies.

On May 2, the 2020 Sierran federal election ended with a major victory for the Social Democrats which scored a two seat plurality over the Democratic-Republicans who won 71 seats in the election. Chan kept her seat and stated that she planned to rebuild the party while also working with Susan Kwon and the Social Democrats stating that now that she was Prime Minister, the party was obligated to work with her and the Social Democrats to advance a progressive agenda. On May 4, the Kwon Ministry was formed and Chan was chosen to succeed Royalist Joe Millard as Minister of Foreign Affairs making Chan a senior-ranking member of Kwon's cabinet.

Chan resigned as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 25 September 2022 amidst details of interference by the United Commonwealth in the 2021 Sierran federal election in support of Kwon. Chan's resignation was announced at a press conference along with her intention to propose a motion of no confidence against the Kwon government on September 26 in response to the Ministry of Justice's findings.

Chan resigned as Minister of Foreign Affairs in September 2022 and withdrew the Democratic-Republicans from the Progressive coalition following revelations that the Continental government interfered in the 2021 elections, which triggered a government crisis. The Democratic-Republicans secured a slim one-seat plurality over the Royalists in the 2022 elections. Chan became prime minister on November 28 after the electoral results were confirmed and she met with the Queen. She is the first Buddhist prime minister, the first Chinese-Sierran female prime minister, and the fourth consecutive female prime minister.

Early life and career

Margaret Chan was born to second-generation Chinese Sierran parents in Oakland, Santa Clara. Both of her parents were born in Santa Clara; her father was born in San Jose while her mother was born in Mountain View. Her father served as a captain in the Sierran Royal Navy and saw service during Great War I in the Pacific Theater against Imperial Japan. She was raised Buddhist and attended her local temple's Chinese language school program. Through her father, she is a second cousin of Prime Minister Franklin Tan. She was frequently called "Maggie" as a child by family, friends, and teachers, which led to her adopting it as her personal name.

Member of Parliament

Elections

Margaret first ran in the October 2017 House of Commons election in Santa Clara's 3rd parliamentary district against Ruth Benson, a four time incumbent and Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. Benson was d controversial candidate during the election primarily due to his status as a career politician and his alignment with the Democratic-Republican establishment. Benson's centrist neoliberal position made him unpopular and Chan used it as an opportunity to primary him running as a progressive left-wing populist politician who opposed the party's centrist establishment. She announced her candidacy on August 20 and her first ad focused on rebuilding the country's infrastructure, supporting universal healthcare and offering stronger opposition to the Royalist-led government.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Defense
  • Subcommittee on Personnel and Human Services
• Committee on Environmental Affairs and Climate
  • Subcommittee on Air Quality and Climate Change (Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure

Caucus memberships

• House Asian Democratic-Republican Women Caucus (Chair)
• House Asian-Pacific Progressive Caucus
• House Asian Styxie Democratic-Republican Caucus

Leader of the Opposition

Margaret Chan was sworn in and took over as the Leader of the Opposition on October 16, 2017 following the most recent House of Commons election and had also token over as the Leader of the Democratic-Republican Party. Her ascension to he Dem-Rep leadership caught media attention due to her more progressive policies in contrast with the rest of the Democratic-Republican political establishment, though many centrist-leaning pundits and commentators had claimed that she was a bridge between the more progressive and liberal-leaning Democratic-Republican base and the largely centrist party establishment. On October 18, Chan gave a public address where she laid out her agenda and vision for the party and what direction both the Democratic-Republicans and the Official Opposition would be taken in. In the speech, she announced that the left-ward shift under Scott's leadership would continue and that he was appointed Shadow Minister of Finance as party of her Opposition Cabinet. She also said that she will negotiate with Susan Kwon and the Social Democrats in order to convince them to remain part of the Opposition as a unified front. On the 19th, Kwon gave a response saying that she was "more than willing" to negotiate with Chan and by the 21st, a settlement had been reached and the Social Democrats said they would continue to be part of the Dem-Rep lead Joint Opposition, though she would still accept progressive Dem-Reps going the Social Democrats as part of the Forwarding the Movement initiative.

On October 27, Chan had announced the formal creation of her Opposition Cabinet and that she would be "steadfast" in her opposition to the Royalist government and congratulated the Democratic-Republican base for successfully reducing the Royalist presence in parliament during the 2017 House of Commons election. She also stated that she found former Prime Minister Daniel McComb guilty of his charges of sexual abuse and assault and that he deserved "swift justice and a long merciless prison sentence" in a November 2017 interview with RBS. Her first major legislative act as Opposition Leader was on November 21, 2017 when House Speaker Joe Millard had proposed passing a resolution calling for a second referendum on Sierra's membership in the CAS. During the ensuing week, Chan had filibustered bill and ultimately killed it. In response to accusations of abusing the filibuster, Chan stated that under McComb, the Royalists had used the filibuster to delay the legislative agenda of Steven Hong and Preston Bolivar during his caretaker government and said that her actions were giving the Royalists "a taste of their own medicine". Following the speech, her approval ratings had gone up and by the beginning of 2018 was more popular than most Dem-Rep politicians and the party at-large. In response to said news, Chan said that dissatisfaction was high among the population towards both the Royalists and Democratic-Republicans and that change was necessary, but recognized that more centrist and establishment-leaning forces in the party would try to stop her.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Resignation

See also: 2022 Kingdom of Sierra government crisis

Premiership

Main article: Premiership of Maggie Chan

Appointment

Main articles: 2022 Sierran federal election and Chan ministry

Foreign policy

The Chan ministry would take a complete reversal from her predecessor in regards to foreign policy, taking a more aggressive approach with regards to the United Commonwealth, the United People's Committees, and other Continental allies. After months of obstruction by Kwon, the Economic Freedom and Trade Act proposed by Isabelle Huynh passed on December 17, 2022. The act proposed major sanctions on the Continental States and the Andes, banned all major companies in certain industries identified as essential to national security (such as telecommunications) in Sierra from doing business with their counterparts in the United Commonwealth and the Andes. On January 2, 2023, Chan announced that unofficial visits by Sierran politicians to the Antilles like the visit by deputy prime minister Kenneth O'Conner] in August 2022, but her government would not formally recognize the Antilles as a sovereign state.

Domestic policy

Chan would commit to her socially liberal policies, serving as a continuation of the social policies by the previous Kwon government. Chan would praise the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide in 2022 in Boulangier v. the Deseret. She stated that she would continue to back the ruling despite the publically stated opposition by the Royalist Party. In contrast with Kwon's social policies, Chan would partially reverse several Kwon-era policies in regards to healthcare and labor law. In January 2023, the National Healthcare Opportunity Act was proposed in parliament which called for the partial de-nationalization of Sierra's healthcare system, returning to the pre-2020 system where each PSA has their own system of universal healthcare over a federalized system, returning all hospitals and health clinics to PSA or private owned alternatives rather than state ownership. The law seeked to repeal the National Health Protection Act of 2020 that nationalized the entire healthcare system and industry in response to the COVID-19 pandmeic in the country.

Political positions

Main article: Political positions of Maggie Chan

Social issues

Chan is an ardent social liberal and leans heavily to the left on social issues. On the issue of abortion, Margaret is pro-choice and has opposed an legislation by the Royalist minority government to restrict and regulate access to abortion and has used the filibuster to kill such bills. She's denounced such bills as waging a war on women's reproductive rights and has denounced heartbeat bills as "anti-scientific, puritanical, mjisgoynstic stone-age legislative authoritarianism" and has filibustered many bills attempting to pass said bills and has killed attempts to grant unborn fetuses status as living beings worthy of constitutional protections. She has a 100% score by Planned Parenthood of Sierra and 0% by the Sierran Right to Life Foundation. Margaret is also left-wing on the issue of drugs and supports decriminalization and legalization of marijuana and other narcotics. She also supports releasing individuals previously convicted on non-violent marijuana related charges and pardoning them completely.

Foreign policy

Margaret Chan is a committed non-interventionist when it comes to foreign policy and during her campaign for the House of Commons she ran against Benson's liberal hawkish record. Chan has been critical of the Royalist government's aggressive foreign policy from escalation tensions with the United Commonwealth to continued offensive military operations in Syria. As minister of foreign affairs, Chan has supported the ongoing Syrian peace process in order to end the nearly two decade-long conflict while also continuing Sierran and CAS support to the Syrian government and military against the Ba'athist Syrian opposition and Jihadist insurgent groups active in the country.

Since the start of the 2021–22 Caribbean diplomatic crisis, Chan has sided with Brazil and has supported increased economic sanctions on both the United Commonwealth and the United People's Committees for their role in the Amazonas incident from December 2021, but has opposed sanctiong in all member states of OMEAD. Chan has been supportive of diplomatic reconciliation with Mexico, but has condemned the Mexican government for its alleged ties to drug cartels and has accused the current Mexican state under Veracruz of being a narco-state. Chan has also supported and implemented various sanctions on Mexican government officials for ties to the Nayarit Cartel.

Chan has had mixed statements in regards to the Antilles located in the Caribbean. She has supported the numerous reforms and improvements in the country's politics and governmental system since the beginning of democratization in 1983, but has denied claims that the process has been completed. She has condemned the continued dominance of the Federalist Party over national politics, continetious election laws, and its historic mistreatment of its racial and ethnic minorities. Chan has opposed recognizing the Antilles as an independent state for these reasons and supports the One America policy. During the Caribbean crisis, Chan would defend Operation Poseidon's Watch and sent a letter of gratitude towards president Arian Lawrence for the operation after the Caribbean Sea incident in March 2022.

Electoral history

Main article: Electoral history of Maggie Chan

Personal life

Margaret is a vegan and a practicing Buddhist, of which she follows the Mahayana school. She has cited the Lotus Sutra as a text of inspiration in her life and career. She remarked that her high-ranking position in the Sierran government should serve "reassurance" to Sierra's religious minorities that can be open about their faith and be elected into office.

See also

• Women in the House of Commons of the Kingdom of Sierra