Wayne Cao (born Nguyễn Cảo; December 7, 1946) is a Canadian politician and former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, where he represented the district of Calgary-Fort as a Progressive Conservative.

[3] After the Vietnam War, he came to California as a refugee - he boarded an American helicopter just before the fall of Saigon - and settled in Calgary in 1976.

[3] Cao first sought public office in the 1997 provincial election, when he ran in the riding of Calgary-Fort as the Progressive Conservative.

[15] Several MLAs spoke in opposition to the bill, including Liberals Bill Bonko (who felt, as a former school trustee, that any percentage should be mandated by local school boards) and Harry Chase, New Democrat David Eggen (who suggested that global history was as or more important than Canadian history), and Progressive Conservative Education Minister Ron Liepert (who agreed with Eggen and who extolled the virtues of the recently implemented existing social studies curriculum).

[16] Outside of the legislature, Progressive Conservatives Neil Brown and Len Webber expressed reservations about the decision being made at the political, rather than local, level.

[19] He re-introduced it in 2000, when several MLAs, including Liberals Don Massey, Laurie Blakeman, Linda Sloan, and Percy Wickman and Progressive Conservatives Moe Amery, Karen Kryczka, and Mary Anne Jablonski, spoke in support of the bill on second reading.

[20] The bill passed second reading with 34 votes in favour and four (Gary Friedel, Richard Magnus, Barry McFarland, and Rob Renner) against.

Chase (who felt that the government's role in volunteer recognition should come in the form of support, rather than in the form of after-the-fact recognition) and Progressive Conservatives Richard Marz (who argued that medals should be restricted to those who had risked their lives), Heather Forsyth (who was concerned by the level of bureaucracy in the bill), George Rogers (who suggested that it duplicated existing government programs), Ray Prins (who was concerned that by singling out individual volunteers it would demean the contributions of those who weren't recognized), and Doug Griffiths (who echoed Rogers' arguments and also expressed concern that the proposed award would have a built in bias in favour of volunteers with large organizations).

[30] Cao also sponsored a successful private bill in 1998, the Tanya Marie Bryant Adoption Termination Act.