Elizabeth Bigger Running For Greens in Northern Riding
Green Party candidate Elizabeth Bigger following her selection Friday night. Photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – The Green Party has selected its candidate in Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies in the October 19th federal election.
At their nomination meeting at ArtSpace Friday evening, party members selected Elizabeth Bigger as their candidate. Korie Marshall, Silverado Socrates and Karen McDowell had also put their names forward to run for the Greens.
Bigger is a former 12-year resident of Fort Nelson who now works and resides in Vancouver. She says in Fort Nelson she worked for the Northern Environmental Action Team (NEAT), a not-for-profit organization. “I worked for them for four years, teaching our community about green initiatives. I worked with industry, government, the schools and the public trying to teach people how to live a greener lifestyle.”
“During my time there I was fairly outspoken against the oil and gas industry and on numerous occasions our local mayor threatened to pull funding from NEAT if I didn’t stop speaking out against oil and gas. Eventually, after the third strike, I had to either resign or be fired. I refused to resign because I believe what I did was not wrong and they fired me and I found myself in Vancouver.”
Bigger, who is 36-years-old, says “Fort Nelson is the first and only place I’ve really truly felt was my home, and I feel this (candidacy) is such an amazing honour and opportunity to try to change the tide of the way our world is going right now.”
She says she understands that the Fort Nelson area is an industrial region. “Most people have jobs in industry and they know about climate change, people aren’t stupid and they aren’t bad either, they’re not bad people for working in the oil and gas industry.”
“I have a house in Fort Nelson. I’ve invested everything I own into that house and our town is struggling right now because they’re not drilling. I know that the biggest battle is to shift the thinking from subsidizing the oil and gas industries to start subsidizing green infrastructure. And build a huge economy in renewable resources so people can eventually, over time, shift their jobs so they can still create an economy and make a living.”
On Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Bigger says “she’s amazing, and hearing the leaders’ debate I really think people are scared and they want the economy and they’re not willing to learn that by creating green infrastructure we create seven times the amount of jobs of traditional oil and gas. She is amazing how she tells the facts and uses scientific facts to back her up.”
“I really do believe people know the truth, they are scared that we will totally fall into a massive recession and that we can’t transition into a clean, renewable Canada. The shift is now, the tide is turning and this is a new party. But I think people really believe at this time that what we’re doing now isn’t working, so its time for a change.”
We wrapped up our interview with Elizabeth Bigger with this question: You’re living in Vancouver, how much time are you going to be able to spend in the riding campaigning? “I work ten more days with AIDS Vancouver, where I’ve learned a lot about social issues, and then I can be up here the entire rest of the time until the election. So I’ll spend every second I can up here.”
“And elected I would move back to Fort Nelson in a heartbeat.”
The other candidates in the riding are Conservative Bob Zimmer, Liberal Matt Shaw and Libertarian Party contender Todd Keller.
Bigger joins Richard Jacques in Cariboo-Prince George as the Green Party’s candidates in these two ridings.
Comments
She was a troublemaker in ft Nelson, and I’m not bringing up anything new here. Just a google her name, read some of the stories on her.
Is she miss guided or what.
They couldn’t pick someone who lives in the riding?
“They couldn’t pick someone who lives in the riding?”
It wasn’t an issue for Dick Harris.
congratulations MS. Bigger . The North needs someone who deals in fact based reality .
That right DI . Unlike Harris ,she owns a house in the north . While dick owns dick up north .
It’s funny how some people on this site jump at bashing individuals for having a passion for beliefs that matter. I can only imagine the positive contribution these individuals have made through their lives thous far.
I’m happy to see that we have choices in our ridings this time around. Reading that 4 people stepped up for the nomination is also good news, given that these ridings have been a walk in the park for the Conservatives for many years. I’m hoping that it shows an increased level of engagement in the north, and maybe whoever wins will need to work harder for it.
Posted on Saturday, August 29, 2015 @ 9:14 AM by Digitus Impudicus with a score of 4
“They couldn’t pick someone who lives in the riding?”
It wasn’t an issue for Dick Harris.
——–
I’m pretty sure he lived in the riding when first elected. It wasn’t until he was assured of his gold-plated pension that he got the hell out of Dodge.
She lived in the riding until recently when she was fired because of her beliefs as she told Hawkins. She got a job with Aids Vancouver and is working with them for another 10 days. Then she can go back to Fort Nelson. That is her home and the place she likes.
If she should get elected her riding office would likely be in F.S.John or Dawson Creek with an ancillary one in PG. She could live in any of those places, including Fort Nelson although that would entail a lot of travel.
If you want to read about troublemakers, read the linked story below about Ezra Levant and his BS about Ethical Oil from a conference in Fort Nelson in 2011. Bigger worked as Eco-Advisor with the Northern Environmental Action Team (NEAT) in Fort Nelson. Obviously two people from opposite ends of the issue faced head on. What can you expect? Each side can easily call the spokesperson of each a “troublemaker”. It is all based on a point of view, nothing more. This is still a free speech country, although sometimes I have my doubts.
pipelinenewsnorth.ca/news/industry-news/ezra-levant-on-ethical-oil-1.1123061
The Greens got 2300 votes in the last Federal Election in the PG Peace River riding.
She will do well if she can match that number this time around,.
OK all you anti Conservative/Harris sore losers…..
As I can determine from just a little bit of looking…which apparently you haven’t done..
Harris moved to Prince George in 1959 and he left Prince George to live primarily in Ottawa and Osoyoos in 2013….
He is now going to retire to Osoyoos BC in a house he and his wife bought in 2003. (this appears to be a sin to some)
So lets do the math….
Harris lives in Prince George from 1959 to 2012 that makes.. uhh 53 years
I suspect 53 years is longer than most complainers have been alive…..
I invite the anti Conservative/Harris posters to check this out
Not so fast on that one. Harris got divorced soon after getting elected and only had a nominal place in PG. He rented a one bedroom apartment for most of his elected time in office as a drop in place when in the riding. His main residence was Ottawa and Osoyoos. He only gave up renting his apartment in PG after he decided he would no longer run for another election cycle….
A friend of mine hooked his cable up for him and his girl friend at his apartment building, and said the whole thing was disgusting that we have a local MP that is only nominally a resident.
He even drove a rented car when he was in town because it was cheaper that way the amount of time he spent here.
I’m almost positive that the numbers behind her in the picture are the over/under book as to how many votes she will get. 5 bucks on under.
@notsofast. Now lets here you justify Dick being the second most expensive MP last year.
“@notsofast. Now lets here you justify Dick being the second most expensive MP last year.”
Travel expenses. Prince George, Ottawa and Osoyoos….good thing he did not get a Senate appointment from Harper because those three different residences might have driven the Senate Auditing Committee to attempted mass suicide, as the so-called rules were so vague and !
…and open to interpretation, purely accidental of course!
From the Osoyoos Times…
“Curiously Harris’s travel claims show he has often claimed trips between Ottawa and Osoyoos and Ottawa and Kelowna as travel to and from his constituency , even though his actual riding is 800 kilometres from here.
“Harris claimed more than $120,000 in travel expenses for Philips (wife) and himself for the fiscal year ending March 31.”
“Harris was one of 52 Reform party MP’s first elected in 1993, swearing they would not take part in the “gold plated” MP pension plan.”
Harris would not return their calls.
Little wonder this fraud endorsed Todd.
I wonder if the RCMP are privy to this obvious fraud . I don’t think not running again absolves him of it .or maybe they have to ask Stevie before they act . You don’t have to be a rocket surgeon to see it for what it is . Why only audit the senate ? Why not weed out the bad apples where ever they operate ? Or is the the job of the online commons ? If that’s the case in this new paradigm . Then the pg/caribou should be able the sue for its money back .
Being a permanent resident of the riding one represents should be a legal requirement, no moving away after being elected. The same law should exist for senators and the province they represent. No ifs or buts. No finagling the issue, no misleading the public. A senator was caught having lived in Mexico most of the year each year and only attending a couple of senate sessions per year. He got away with it for a few years until the media got wind of it! Then he retired and faded into obscurity.
Only in Canada, you say? Aren’t politics and politicians fun?
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