Green Party candidate Forbes visits Fort St. John on campaign trail

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The Green Party candidate for the riding covering the Peace River region stopped in Fort St. John on her campaign trail in the northeast

Mary Forbes greeted customers at Fort St. John Return It recycling depot throughout the morning and into the afternoon on March 27th.  

The vice-chair of School District 27 in Williams Lake, Mary has a personal connection with the city.

“I was a homeowner in Fort St. John for seven years,” said Forbes, adding she’s spent more than a decade in Williams Lake.

“It’s been many years since I worked up here as an archeologist, but it still has that same feeling, and I’ve just had a smile on my face.”

She is also a conservationist, the northern coordinator of the Stream of Dreams salmon ecology education program, and a former archeologist. 

In addition, Forbes has an aptitude for mechanical ingenuity: she contributes to the Bikes For All Program, in coordination with the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society.

It involves taking broken parts of discarded two-wheelers and turning them again into functional machines.

The program works with school children, showing them how to take bikes apart and put them together. 

“I have so many jobs,” said Forbes. “Interpreter is my professional term. It doesn’t mean I speak a bunch of languages, unless [those] are snake and wolf, or composting worms and recycling.

“I’m crafty. I find forms of transportation and the way we get around in the north really interesting, no matter what form it takes.”

Forbes will contest the Prince George – Peace River – Northern Rockies riding alongside NDP candidate Cory Longley, People’s Party of Canada candidate David Watson and incumbent Conservative Bob Zimmer.

With a background as an archeologist in the oil patch, she feels the best solutions to renewable energy lie with the workers of that field.

“There is a transition towards renewable energy,” said Forbes. “[The] process needs to happen sooner than later. I think that we’re going to be dependent on [the oil patch] for quite a while, and need to take care of it and be really careful with it, because those resources are a part of the Canadian economy.

“I think [that] the [key to] transition[ing] towards greener alternatives that will be happening in this area [is] to make sure that the people who live here are the professionals who consult into it, and that those green jobs are brought in in a timely manner, but in a way that everybody who’s here are able to transition into a place so that it’s not a boom and bust cycle.”

One thing Forbes noted was that issues in the Peace region were similar to the Cariboo district, despite the “regional borders.”

These include access to mental health, the opioid crisis, the consumer carbon tax and access to affordable housing. 

She would also like to see an end to the ‘first past the post’ voting system and is in favour of electoral reform.

“[First past the post] does not represent the region well,” said Forbes. “[There are alternatives] like proportional representation or other forms that are available.”

One thing noteworthy about Forbes’ is how she will travel:  rather than check into a hotel, she will sleep in her car while in the city.

“I’ve got a really warm sleeping bag,” said Forbes. “I’m [choosing to run] because I really want people in the north to know there’s another choice on the ballot.

“I want [constituents] to know their full democratic process is available.”

The federal election is scheduled for Monday, April 28th.

The 2025 federal election is happening on April 28th. Let us know what topics are most important to you for the Prince George – Peace River – Northern Rockies riding by taking our survey at https://energeticcity.ca/election/