It's official - the Green Party has finalized a candidate for the riding of Powell River-Sunshine Coast.
Richard Till was confirmed by Elections BC Wed-nesday afternoon after a week and a half of fundraising and internal work to finalize the candidacy.
Till was selected and confirmed as the Green candidate last week, but as of Monday night, April 22, the party was still fundraising to pay for an auditor to qualify for the BC Elections criteria. Till confirmed Tuesday morning that their nomination booklet was completed and submitted to Elections BC. All the paperwork was finalized by Elections BC on Wednesday.
Till joins incumbent NDP MLA Nicholas Simons and Liberal candidate Patrick Muncaster on the ballot for the May 14 election.
In an interview with Coast Reporter on April 18, Till said he was approached to run in the riding when another person chose to step aside.
"On Sunday [April 14], a local person who was going to run informed me they would not be able to run, which was unfortunate," he said, adding that he could not provide a reason why the first candidate stepped aside. "I've been involved in a lot of things in the past and changes for the good, and despite the fact that I'm not as young as I used to be, I felt I still had some fight in me and had the energy to work for change. I considered accepting and contacted the party."
In his bio posted on the Green Party BC election website, Till said human ecology is the great arena of change in our time.
"Whereas most ofmy life has been spent working outside the system, I believe the time hascome to gather with organized movements to effect necessary change," he said. "TheGreen Party represents the most viable vehicle to steer us towards the rightsort of change for British Columbia."
Till graduated with a BSc in behavioural science and aminor in outdoor education. He is a qualified welder fabricator and has built a log house and irrigation pipeline, farmed organic grapes, built andsailed a boat, run a business, been a trades instructor, worked in youthcorrections outdoor programs and, most recently, workedtogether with the Sechelt Nation.
Mountaineering, working inoutdoor youth programs, canoeing, backpacking and working in theback country have further convinced Till that B.C. must be protected fromthe invasive agendas of foreign corporate interests that have no roots orhuman investment here.
"People here should have the opportunity to choose Green Partyvalues and objectives; they should have a voice," he said.
