Two Terrace residents have been confirmed as candidates for the Conservative Party of Canada’s Skeena-Bulkley Valley nomination for this fall’s federal election.
MaryAnn Freeman, 49, and Tyler Nesbitt, 31, have until late this month to gain the support of nearly 300 members of the party in the riding which stretches from Haida Gwaii in the west to Fort St. James in the east.
The party will be setting up polling stations in several communities throughout the riding on a date that has yet to be set but which will be toward the end of the month.
Freeman is a co-owner of a trucking company with her husband and Nesbitt is a manager with Nechako Northcoast, the company with the provincial road maintenance contract in the area.
Both have roots in the area with Freeman moving to Terrace 25 years ago and Nesbitt being born in Prince Rupert and living in Terrace since 2009.
Freeman had been president of the Conservative party’s riding association but stepped down in order to become a candidate.
Both nomination candidates stressed job creation.
“I saw how many kids left and that meant their families left to find employment elsewhere,” said Freeman in citing past experience as the chair of the Coast Mountains School District’s district-wide parent advisory council.
“Economic growth and that jobs that would be created. That would be No. 1 on my platform,” said Nesbitt.
Both were cautious about one large project, Enbridge’s Northern Gateway oil pipeline.
Both said the company must satisfy the 209 conditions laid down by the National Energy Board and five conditions set out by the provincial government before they would fully support the project.
A third potential candidate, teacher Gerald Caron of Vanderhoof, dropped out earlier.
