Cariboo Chilcotin Green Party candidate Rita Giesbrecht officially opened a campaign office in 100 Mile House last week and plans to be in Williams Lake every Tuesday at the Bean Counter from 10 a.m. to noon to meet with the public.
She has also been appointed by the party’s leader Andrew Weaver as spokesperson for rural development.
“I am dedicated to making sure that the rural community supports the full spectrum of our community,” she said. “I am not OK with the fact our ratio of children living in poverty is one of the highest in the province and I feel natural resource extraction here could benefit the people that live here more than it does.”
There has to be something done about truckloads of raw logs leaving the area for export out of B.C., she added.
“We need to be looking at different alternatives.”
Giesbrecht lives at 108 Mile Ranch and has called the Cariboo home for the last 27 years.
This is her first foray into provincial politics.
She ran in the last 100 Mile House municipal election but did not gain a seat.
“I had some familiarity with the Green Party so I went to the Green Party convention last spring and spent most of my time at policy development tables,” she said.
Giesbrecht has worked in a lot of different fields with not-for-profits.
“I work for a social services delivery agency right now and I have spent the last seven years doing agriculture advocacy and economic development through the South Cariboo Agriculture Enterprise Centre,” she said, noting she also works with a publishing company and wilderness photography which takes her out into the backcountry.
She has worked with arts groups, been on arts councils on and off for 25 years, she added.
Through the South Cariboo Agriculture Enterprise she worked on the development of the Applied Sustainable Ranching Program at Thompson Rivers University.
The enterprise is also collaborating with the Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association on developing a research centre for the Cariboo.
“First Nations and settlement government collaboration and co-operation in the best possible way that we can is critical,” she said. “I think it’s a huge issue here and there are really good ways to deal with it.”
She’d also like to see an improved climate for students going to school in the riding and all of rural B.C.
“Schools should be resourced according to what they need, rather than where there’s the most enrollment right across the board of rural B.C. because right now I think it’s patchy.”
Giesbrecht said running for the Green Party means she is completely uninfluenced by anything other than by individual donation money.
“The Green Party took the stance that we would not accept any money from corporations or organizations,” she said. “That level of independence and freedom to be a direct voice is the reason I can do this. I couldn’t be subject to money influence how I behaved as a representative.”
