Thursday, March 23, 2017

Green Party take a familiar name to the trail, selecting Hondo Arendt for North Coast campaign

Hondo Arendt, is once again set to
contest the North Coast Riding on
behalf of the Green Party of BC
The North Coast election campaign is a duet no longer, as incumbent NDP MLA Jennifer Rice and Liberal candidate Herb Pond will now be joined on the campaign trail by Hondo Arendt, who will contest the riding for the Green Party.

The Greens have one again turned to the Northwest Community College professor to put forward their policies and electoral ambitions.

Mr. Arendt previously sought the North Coast seat in the 2008 and 2013 provincial elections. He also ran for the Green party at the Federal level in the 2008 election campaign.

In that 2013 provincial campaign Mr. Arendt received just over 10 per cent of the vote in the riding, claiming 831 votes for the Green Party.

Those 2013 results looked as follows:

Hondo Arendt 831
Judy Fraser 2,692
Jennifer Rice 4,617

The full listing poll by poll from that campaign can be reviewed here.

Mr. Arendt's  entry to the North Coast race will now give residents of the riding a third option and an opportunity to compare the economic and environmental policies of the Green Party to those of the two other candidates and their parties.

It will also add even more interest in the how the results from election day may turn out, with a third entry now offering some fascinating possibilities when it comes how the voters may view their options on May 9th.

The arrival of a third candidate now putting in play the potential for the Green candidate to take support from the other candidates from the two larger parties.

The Green Party made the announcement of their candidate selection with this information release from Wednesday, with Green Party leader Andrew Weaver taking note of Mr. Arendt's work in the Northwest.

“I am thrilled to welcome Hondo to our incredible slate of B.C. Green candidates,” ... “Hondo is an outstanding educator, political scientist and long-time advocate for made-in-B.C. Green ideas. He has deep roots in the Northwest and is well-positioned to be the voice for the people of North Coast in the legislature in Victoria.”

The Green Party is quickly starting to fill in some of the gaps in their candidate's list, which as we noted last week had for the most part been confined to the large urban communities of the province.

The Greens are looking to the 2017 campaign to be a breakthrough election for their message and policies in British Columbia, with some strong candidates set to contest in key ridings, with hopes to deliver more companions for party leader Andrew Weaver following the May 9th vote.

With Mr. Arendt now taking to the campaign in the North Coast, the party will now have a strong advocate for its ambitious political platform, which they have started to roll out.

Those documents and Mr. Arendt's time on the campaign trail, and past experience as a candidate, now offer the opportunity for residents of the riding to compare how Green policies might be put into motion, should the party form a government, or what areas of interest that the candidate would take to Victoria on behalf of the region as an MLA.

For the short term however, the Green Party has a bit of in house riding identification work to do, as of this morning their candidate's list from the party website had placed their newest candidate as contesting the Skeena riding, with the nomination process still open for the North Coast.





Hopefully, the Green's haven't ordered a large supply of lawn signs and pamphlets to this point ...

In an interesting confluence of backgrounds, the North Coast campaign now features three connections to Northwest Community college.

As mentioned previous, Mr. Arendt is a professor at the Prince Rupert campus, Mr. Pond is a member of the NWCC board, while Ms. Rice was once a student at NWCC's Prince Rupert campus.

The shared interest in education could offer up one theme for the campaign ahead, though perhaps it may be one of the few where the three may have common ground on the issues and what vision that they may have for the region.

You can follow the latest notes on the North Coast campaign trail from our North Coast Votes Archive page here.

For a look at the larger campaign on the provincial scene see our political portal D'Arcy McGee.

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