NANAIMO B.C. – The B.C. Green Party announced today that Michele Ney and Duane Nickull are seeking the party’s nomination for the upcoming by-election in Nanaimo. Ney is a retired teacher with School District 68, and Nickull is a renewable energy consultant. This is Ney’s first campaign for political office. Nickull previously ran as a candidate for the B.C. Conservative Party in 2013.
“I am thrilled that party members in Nanaimo have the opportunity to choose between two capable and passionate contestants who want to serve them as their candidate and MLA,” said B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver. “We are excited to offer our vision for British Columbia to the voters of Nanaimo and I am looking forward to campaigning with the successful candidate.”
A nomination meeting will be held in Nanaimo on Sat. Dec. 15 from 1:30 - 5:00 PM with a location to be confirmed. Party members in the riding of Nanaimo will be able to vote online and in-person at the nomination meeting. Weaver will be in attendance at the nomination meeting.
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Resources
Michele Ney
Duane Nickull
Media contacts
For B.C. Green Party
+1 778-650-0597
[email protected]
For Michele Ney
Ian Gartshore
+1 250-713-9809
[email protected]
For Duane Nickull
Duane Nickull
+1 604-726-3329
[email protected]
Michele Ney
Michele Ney is a born and raised resident of Nanaimo. She has deep roots in Nanaimo where her father Frank Ney placed Nanaimo on the map with the traditional World Bathtub Race. He was mayor of Nanaimo for 21 years and MLA (Social Credit Member of the Legislative Assembly) for Nanaimo from 1969 to 1972. Ney was raised in a large family of eleven children.
Ney has been an educator for 32 years, teaching at the elementary and high school level. She holds a Bachelor of Education degree from University of Victoria and 1st year Master of Education degree in Leadership and Counseling from San Diego State University. She has attended studies at the Justice Institute of British Columbia in mediation, negotiation and restorative justice.
Ney has always had a deep passion for teaching at all levels of education. She retired from her profession this year. Throughout her career, Ney has focused her attention volunteering her time on numerous committees such as anti-bullying, community/culture and professional development, as well as various sports teams to support and encourage the children in the schools at which she had taught. She feels strongly that “supporting our children is supporting our future – as they are and will be the leaders of our future.”
Being an educator has provided Ney with many transferable skills that make her an ideal candidate to represent her riding at the provincial level. Her strong communication skills, her natural ability to have patience and compassion for others, being a visionary with hope and aspiration for our future, a team player, open minded and an excellent problem solver are a few of the many strengths she portrays that will support her in the role as MLA. She has a genuine desire to inspire people to be their best and to instill love, respect and compassion for our fellow members of community and our environment. She would now like to redirect this passion and inspiration in a leadership role, guiding and supporting her constituents with hope and dreams for a better future for our children, seniors and in between.
Duane Nickull
Duane Nickull is a life-long advocate of environmental conservatism and a pragmatic thinker. As a social libertarian and fiscal conservative, he has run for political office in the past challenging former BC premier Christy Clark in her home riding of Vancouver-Point Grey in the 2013 provincial election. During many debates, he realized his political views were in strong alignment with the BC Green Party and as a Nanaimo-born British Columbian, seeks to represent the BC Greens during the upcoming Nanaimo by-election.
Nickull is a former World Cup level mountain bike racer and a technologist who has worked for over 20 years in the software industry. Besides his duties as a father of three, he has worked for Adobe Systems, been elected as a Vice Chair of the United Nations CEFACT Working Group and worked on renewable energy projects with the US Department of Energy as a contractor. As a musician, he is connected to people from many different walks of life ranging from politics, technology workers, parents, business-people to musicians.
Nickull is a member of the BC Sustainable Energy Association and an advocate for restoration of usable commuter and freight rail service for the Vancouver Island Rail Corridors. He also wishes to bring new economy prosperity to the mid island region. Projects such as these could greatly improve people’s quality of life as well as provide economic benefits and thought leadership.
Nickull has founded three computer software companies in the past and pioneered many new disciplines of computer science research including Service Oriented Architecture (SOA, Web Services and EbXML) and Web 2.0. He has co-authored many books on these topics and always promoted the beauty of British Columbia.