The local Green Party riding association has selected Adeana Young to run as its candidate for Skeena — Bulkley Valley as discussion about the possibility of a fall election continues to heat up.
Young was previously elected twice to serve on the Old Massett village council between 2016 and 2020, and is currently serving as a trustee for School District 50 Haida Gwaii. She also acted in the film “Edge of the Knife,” or SG̲aawaay Ḵ’uuna in Haida — the first film spoken only in the Haida language.
Young, who is Haida , said she has always had ambition for politics and thought for a long time about putting her name forward as a candidate.
“It initially stems from the systems in which we’re in that sometimes causes oppression or a feel of defeat for an everyday person like me,” she said.
“I’m a mom, I’m a fisherman’s wife, I’m a daughter and a granddaughter of parents and grandparents who went to day school in Indian residential school. And just looking to help with the misunderstanding of the Canadian history and how Indigenous people play a role in federal politics.”
In Skeena — Bulkley Valley, the Green Party has never placed higher than fourth in a federal election since the riding was created in 2003. The Greens experienced their most success in the 2019 election, when candidate Mike Sawyer claimed nearly eight per cent of the vote in the riding.
Young said she can build on that result by leaning on her past experiences working with the federal government during her time with the Old Massett village council, pushing to ensure her community’s concerns were taken into account by the federal government, and successfully retaining professional development funding from Indigenous Services Canada.
“The decision making processes and the meetings and the positions that I’ve been able to hold over those years have been phenomenal, the learning curve that I’ve experienced was so much, and I feel like I have a lot to offer and a lot to contribute to federal politics,” she said.
Parliament is now in its summer recess and there is growing speculation Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will call an election in late summer or early fall to try and gain a majority in the House of Commons, something that eluded him in 2019.
Theresa Tait-Day is running for the Conservative Party nomination alongside Claire Ratée, who was the Conservative candidate in the 2019 federal election in the Skeena — Bulkley Valley riding. She finished second to New Democrat Taylor Bachrach, who has also been named as his party’s candidate for the next election.
In February, the federal Christian Heritage Party announced that party leader Rod Taylor will be its candidate in Skeena — Bulkley Valley.
Young said that the riding is dynamic, and the people in it have diverse views, which is something she is looking forward to working with when an election does take place.
“I will always make sure that I can hear what the people are saying, the people who support industry like the oil and gas industry and hear the people who oppose it, because one of the cultural guiding laws that I follow in Haida culture is everything depends on everything else.”
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