The Federal Liberals have announced a candidate for the Kootenay-Columbia riding, Robin Goldsbury.
According to a news release from the party, Goldsbury’s message is one of hard work and dynamic action.
“We need determination and passion to keep our small community vitality on the federal radar,” she said.
She says her values are rooted in fairness, integrity, foresight, collaboration, rational thinking, inclusion and hard work.
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Raised in Alberta, she married a Kootenay man and moved to the Cranbrook area thirty years ago.
She put her background in managing corporate marketing to use by running Adeas, an in-house ad agency at Koocanusa Publications, designing marketing campaigns for many Kootenay businesses. From what started as a bet she couldn’t sell “kindling”, Goldsbury says she built a thriving value-added forestry business that sold forest botanicals to the floral trade worldwide.
Her Kootenay Cone Company was the first licensed botanical collector in B.C. and at peak employed 45 people, and developed many sustainable harvesting techniques in use today.
Concurrently, Goldsbury and her partner also purchased a Cranbrook motel.
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After 10 years in forestry Goldsbury returned to school and completed a master’s degree in neuroscience. She landed on Kootenay Lake in 2007 where she and her partner built the iconic Dock n Duck Resort at the Balfour Ferry Landing.
While raising two sons, Goldsbury said she worked with many Kootenay non-profit organizations, managing many projects with an entrepreneurial approach sensitive to people and the environment. She says her key strengths are researching, tested leadership and award-winning strategy planning, implementation and management. For over 25 years she’s been in the Kootenay business trenches and has faced challenges such as issues with staffing, succession and profitability mired by climate change, government policy and burn-out.
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Goldsbury says she is familiar with transportation issues, access to healthcare, affordability and housing, while also having experienced capacity restrictions as a volunteer, writing grants and navigating government bureaucracy.
This isn’t her first foray into politics; Goldsbury said she served as chair of the Alberta Student’s Executive Council as a young student where she obtained a personal letter of recommendation from Brian Mulroney.
Finding her political home in the Liberal Party of Canada, Goldsbury has been actively involved in creating policy with the national women’s commission and advocated for the new Ministry of Rural Economic Development.
“Rural is relevant! We are relevant! Together we have the creative, collaborative and workable solutions for sustainable rural vitality. What’s needed is the enthusiasm and the smarts to grab the government’s attention and get the work done,” she said in a news release.
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