I am a teacher, a mother and step-mother, and soon to be a grandmother. I lived in Victoria from 1990 to 2011, earned three degrees from UVic, and was juggling teaching and family when I was offered a job teaching in Shawnigan Lake. We moved up, expecting to stay for one year and then return to our home in Fairfield, but one thing led to another, and we settled into the community in Shawnigan Lake. In March 2013, the provincial government issued a draft permit for a contaminated landfill at a site uphill from the Lake, and my journey into politics began. I had never imagined that a government could put a community’s drinking water at risk. I learned about deregulation and professional reliance, about how communities and experts can be ignored in decision-making processes. And I learned about the power that comes from people deciding to work together towards a shared goal.

For four years, our community never gave up on the goal of having clean, safe drinking water for ourselves and future generations, and finally in February 2017, the permit was revoked. I was elected as MLA for Cowichan Valley three months later, and I remain driven by the belief that government and public institutions should be first and foremost trustworthy and oriented to serving the public interest, creating a more fair and equal society, and ensuring that everyone has the services they need to feel secure.

I’m excited to be back in Victoria and continuing the work I did in the Cowichan Valley bringing people together and solving problems.