Speakers

Jonina Campbell is a teacher in the Richmond School District and former New Westminster School Board trustee. In 2017, she ran for the B.C. Green Party in the riding of New Westminster, tripling the party’s support from 8.35% in 2013 to 25.36%.

Jonina was first elected as a trustee for the New Westminster School Board in 2011. In 2013, she was appointed as Board chair, serving in that capacity for three years. During her time as Board chair, the school district overcome significant financial, operational and capital challenges. In addition to achieving financial stability, the school district built a new elementary and middle school, opened a school board office, and most notably, worked closely with the Ministry of Education to secure funding for a new high school.

During the 2017 provincial election, Jonina served as the party’s education spokesperson and brought special attention to the province’s addictions crisis. She and her team ran a positive and principled campaign that inspired more than 100 volunteers, most whom had never been politically active before.

Jonina is married to husband Andrew, with whom she has three children.

Kinsale is 17 years old and in grade 12. He joined the BC Green Party over a year ago and took on a position with the New Westminster Riding Association. He has been working with Jonina Campbell on a number of projects, including a successful fundraising event last summer.

He has been playing football for 10 years and has served his team’s captain. He has always been very involved in school activities, including organizing students around school issues. Next year, he is heading to the University of Toronto to play football on scholarship.

He is very close with his mom Mary-Beth.

Liz Lilly has been a member of the BC Greens since 2015. She joined the party after 25 years working for the BC Government in various different ministries, including Economic Development, Environment, Treasury Board Staff and Community, Sport and Cultural Development. Her career in public service began in the 1980s in the British Government, when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, her final government position was in the Climate Action Secretariat, where frustration with the Christy Clark government’s lack of action inspired her to retire and join the Greens and really make a difference.

Liz has a passion for good public policy and was the architect of the 2017 BC Greens Platform. Liz has worn several hats for the Party over the last four years. Currently, in addition to her role as Interim Executive Director, she is Chief Economist. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Bristol, England; and a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Alberta. She describes herself as being addicted to sport, after wearing out her knees playing field hockey, and squash, running and skiing, she now focuses on cycling, pilates, and kayaking.

She admits to being “really bad at retirement”

Devan grew up playing in the North Shore Mountains and now calls East Vancouver home. After seeing a documentary about the garbage island in the Pacific Ocean he was drawn towards living lighter on the planet. It brought him to the bicycle as a preferred form of transportation and is now a worker member at Shift Delivery Co-op. He is happiest on bike camping trips near the ocean and gets stir crazy when working in front of a screen for too long.

Nahira is grade 10 student at Prince of Wales. Since third grade, Nahira has been interested and involved in her community, aspiring to create an inclusive and sustainable world. Becoming first vegetarian, then leading various initiative in elementary and high school, Nahira is passionate about ending climate change and advocating for greater youth representation in the movement for climate justice.

As part of her project to bring environmental awareness into her community, Nahira co-heads a club at her school that successfully introduced a “Meatless Monday” campaign, adding more vegan and vegetarian options into the school cafeteria. The goal was to raise awareness about animal consumption and carbon footprint while also creating a more inclusive environment.

Sabine is a 19-year-old student and political activist based in Victoria. Sabine has been involved with the Green Party for almost four years now at both the federal and provincial level. During this time she has worked on three campaigns and is currently working on her fourth with Racelle Kooy and her federal election campaign. The environment has always been a focal point for her, however, it was not until she decided to volunteer with the Greens that her view of politics changed.

Cameron has worked as a fry cook, a lifeguard, a swim instructor, an out-of-school care provider and children’s entertainer, a research assistant, a copy editor, and a project manager. At university, he studied Shakespearean villains and also began to conduct research on very expensive and deceitful oil pipeline ads. Around that time, he realized that a heckuva lot of Big Money was also flowing into BC politics. He joined the BC Greens as a volunteer in 2014, was hired as staff in 2015, and helped individual British Columbians donate well over a million dollars towards the Party’s 2017 election.

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Chris has spent over a decade fundraising for charities. Along with his wife and two daughters, Chris makes his home in Victoria.

Kim was elected to her current position as BC Green Provincial Council Secretary in2014. She also ran as a BC Green candidate in the 2017 Provincial election. In addition to Provincial council duties, she sits on the Sunshine Coast Community Futures board and participates in a number of committees, including a Workforce Affordable Housing committee.

Previously, Kim was President of the Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce, where she authored "green" polices for both the BC Chamber and Canadian Chamber of Commerce. In her spare time, you’ll find Kim in her garden, walking her dogs or on her paddleboard.

Andrew has had the honour of serving the constituents of Oak Bay-Gordon Head as an MLA since 2013, as the first Green MLA in the BC Legislature.

Andrew believes in policy, not politics, and has taken a cooperative approach in the Legislature, working across party lines to achieve the results that British Columbians expect and deserve. The BC Green caucus, with the support of their staff team, has seen tremendous results, including the passage of the first BC Green bill (also the first opposition bill ever passed in BC), which enables benefit corporations.

Before entering politics, Andrew spent his career studying the science underpinning past, present and future climate change. He spoke to many young people about the challenge of global warming, and the need to elect candidates who are committed to intergenerational equity and sustainability. Andrew would tell them that, if those candidates don’t exist, then they should consider running themselves.

Over the years, it became harder and harder for Andrew to sit on the sidelines and watch as BC continued to go down the path of investing in old fossil fuel technologies, missing the opportunity to develop a diversified and resilient economy for this generation and the next. Finally, Andrew decided that he needed to take his own advice, and run to be an MLA.

Andrew became leader of the BC Green Party in December of 2015 and led the party through the 2017 election, which resulted in a minority government, the first provincial Green caucus in North America and the balance of responsibility held by the Green caucus. Since then, the caucus has worked with the BC NDP government to implement many reforms, taking particular leadership in the development of the new economic agenda of the province. Under Andrew’s leadership, the caucus has also been a fierce critic of the BC NDP and Liberals’ short-sighted investment in expanding the LNG industry, calling it “subsidized climate change”.

Sonia is honoured to perform the duties of MLA for a region as beautiful, as resilient, and as full of promise as the Cowichan, home to the most engaged, connected, informed and passionate people I have ever met.

Her commitment is to work hard to support the incredible efforts of so many groups and organizations that are contributing to positive and community-building outcomes.

Sonia believes her role is to be ‘at the back of the pack’, making sure everybody can fulfil what they want to be doing in community. When we create the structures that allow people to participate authentically in decision making, we make such good decisions!

Prior to her election to the Legislature, Sonia served as Area B Director for the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) for three years.

Sonia has long been involved in grassroots advocacy. She was National Administrator for Results Canada, a non-profit that works to end extreme poverty, and she served on the Board of Directors for Oikocredit, an international microcredit organization. Sonia was a volunteer with Citizens Climate Lobby, which is committed to finding solutions to the challenge of climate change.

Adam Olsen (SȾHENEP) loves his job as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Saanich North and the Islands. He was elected in May 2017.

Inspired by the incredible place and people he represents, Adam has a deep love for his home in the Salish Sea (W̱SÁNEĆ). As an advocate and facilitator, he is committed to improving public participation to strengthen all aspects of the community and the province.

Adam has always worked in his family businesses, garden maintenance and Coast Salish knits. The result of two decades in the service and communications sectors is the valuable experience in building relationships, connecting people, problems, ideas and solutions.

Born in Victoria, BC in 1976, Adam has lived, worked and played his entire life on the Saanich Peninsula. He is a member of Tsartlip First Nation (W̱JOȽEȽP), where he and his wife, Emily, are raising their two children, Silas and Ella.

Melissa Vincent is the Director of Mobilizing for the Green Party of Canada. She recently served as Field Director for Paul Manly's winning campaign in Nanaimo-Ladysmith. She has nearly a decade of experience in grassroots organizing in the US as a political and labour organizer, and most recently served as the Political Director for the North Dakota State Democratic Party in the US Midterm Elections last year. She is born and raised in Winnipeg and is excited to be back in Canada to help elect Greens this year!