BC Green Party candidate Gracie MacDonald hopes to win a seat in the B.C. Legislature in the provincial election.
MacDonald, who lives on Denman Island, is a longtime educator and executive director of a community school society that provides food programs, including a local food bank, as well as programming for children and adults.
She enjoys hiking, biking and spending time with her puppy.
MacDonald credited the province for cancelling the Crown land lease for Deep Water Recovery’s shipbreaking operation in Union Bay and for limiting major cuts to education.
However, she is concerned that debris from the shipbreaking operation continues to contaminate areas around Baynes Sound. She also wants the province to stop old-growth logging near watersheds and is concerned about the effects of climate change on ecosystems and wildlife.
“It is the dryest fall in my lifetime here, our forests and our fish are struggling,” said MacDonald. “We need to do something about it.”
If elected, MacDonald said she would work to move the province away from resource extraction that provides little value and toward a restoration economy.
“That would mean redirecting some of our workforce from resource extraction to resource restoration,” said MacDonald. “Restoring creeks and rivers, restoring our watersheds. This kind of work generates better value for money rather than straight-off logging and exporting logs.”
MacDonald said she decided to run after the province cut funding earmarked for a 26-unit non-profit housing project on Denman Island.
“We have a plan to build 26 units, we submitted our plans already, we were ready to do it a second time when the province completely gutted their housing funds,” said MacDonald. “So all the little groups like us who are trying to build housing that people can afford in local areas just basically had the rug pulled out from under them. That, for me, was the last straw.”
MacDonald said her values also align with the BC Green Party’s platform.
General voting day for the provincial election is Oct. 24.
