Nelson city councillor Brittny Anderson has announced that she will seek the nomination as the NDP candidate in the next provincial election.
Current Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall announced on Sept. 16 that she does not intend to run again. Anderson told the Star Mungall approached her, asking her to run.
Anderson, 34, is the first person to announce an intention to seek the nomination. She was first elected to Nelson council in the fall of 2018.
“I have loved representing my community both at the city table and at the regional district table,” Anderson said. “And so when I started thinking about [seeking the nomination], I thought about my community.”
She said she thought about families and businesses and how they are surviving the pandemic but still need more support.
“We’ve really been able to keep people safe and keep businesses open. And that’s something that I want to see continue. I think we have a tremendous opportunity here to keep our community safe and thriving, while we face one of our biggest challenges.”
The other big challenge, she says, is climate change.
“We need to work at it as cities and as a province to make sure we are resilient.”
Anderson said she wants to support government environmental and energy initiatives like Clean BC.
“It’s seen the largest investments of anywhere else in Canada in terms of investing in sustainability,” she said.
She also wants to see more people housed, and lauded the work of Nelson Cares.
Anderson grew up in Nelson, graduated from L.V. Rogers Secondary, and has lived in Creston.
She said that even though she thought she knew a lot about Nelson when she ran for council, “every single day on council has been a huge learning experience for me.”
She listed examples such as hydro generation, the paving budget, sewer systems, sidewalks, “how much our arts community contributes to the economy, and how our businesses have lifted themselves up [in the pandemic].”
No date has yet been set for a nomination meeting. The next provincial election will be held on or before Oct. 16, 2021.
Related: Michelle Mungall not seeking re-election
bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com
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