Elizabeth Biggar isn't ready to give up on the north.
Despite a public spat with municipal leadership that ended with her getting fired from her job and leaving Fort Nelson in her rearview mirror, Biggar is looking to represent the entire northeast as the Green Party candidate for Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies.
Biggar beat out three other candidates for the nomination on Aug. 28 at a meeting held at ArtSpace in Prince George.
She joins Conservative incumbent Bob Zimmer, Libertarian Todd Keller, the NDP's Kathi Dickie and Liberal Matt Shaw in the race for the riding.
Biggar left Fort Nelson last year, after a dozen years in the community. She had been fired from her job as the eco-advisor for the Northern Environmental Action Team (NEAT) - a four-year commitment that resulted in, among other things, starting Fort Nelson's recycling program.
But tension between Biggar, her outspoken environmental advocacy and the community's mayor and oil and gas-reliant industry eventually led to her being ousted.
It wasn't a conflict she said she was sure she wanted to shoulder again, Biggar said, and when first contacted by the Green Party to run as a candidate about eight months ago, she declined.
But in looking past the negativity toward the successes she fielded with community volunteers, Biggar said stepping back into the fray was the right thing to do.
Born and raised in the Lower Mainland, Biggar arrived in Fort Nelson in the early 2000s, eventually settling enough to buy a house.
She started her own bottle collection outfit in her basement, which was eventually formalized by the municipality.
Her neophyte efforts caught the attention of NEAT, which was looking to branch into Fort Nelson and was hired for the position in January 2010.
The majority of NEAT's operating funds for the Fort Nelson arm came from the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality.
NEAT closed its doors in Fort Nelson earlier this year after the local government decided not to renew their contract.
"I loved my job, I absolutely loved Fort Nelson, the surrounding areas, the mountains and the people, the community. That's why I'm doing this again," she said.
Biggar's brother Richard is also running for the Green Party in Nova Scotia.
Communicating the Green message - one that advocates for a move away from fossil fuels - in a riding where so many communities are dependent on natural resource industries is no small feat.
Biggar said she's already experienced the blow back earlier this year after news of her two arrests on Burnaby Mountain last November while protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline made it back north.
"So many of my friends in Fort Nelson were so angry at me. They think I'm directly putting them out of a job," said Biggar.
But she said perhaps now people can see those jobs aren't all that secure and the time is ripe for a change to a government interested in making the necessary alterations.
"We need to invest in green infrastructure and renewables now. Fort Nelson's floundering - people are losing their jobs, businesses are shut down because the oil and gas industry isn't prosperous," said Biggar.
"We need to have alternatives. Now is the time for this."
