Early Life and Career
Davies was born in Aldershot, United Kingdom on February 27, 1953 and immigrated to Canada in 1968 with her family. She moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1969. Before being elected to Parliament, she participated in many grass-roots political organizations in Vancouver, specifically in the Downtown Eastside area. She dropped out of university to help Bruce Eriksen found the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA), an influential low-income housing advocacy group. She was instrumental in a campaign to save the Carnegie library which was later converted into the Carnegie Community Centre serving low-income adults. From 1994-1997 Davies was employed by the Hospital Employees' Union.
For 24 years Davies lived in a common law relationship with Vancouver city councilor Bruce Eriksen, who died of cancer in 1997. They had one son, Leif. In 2001 Davies became the first Canadian Member of Parliament to self-identify as a lesbian.
Read more about this topic: Libby Davies
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