The federal Green Party says its deputy leader – Angela Davidson, known as Rainbow Eyes – will be the party’s Northwest Territories candidate in the coming federal election.
The Greens have two co-leaders, Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault. Davidson has been a deputy leader of the party since 2022.
She is a member of the Da’naxda’xw/Awaetlala First Nation of Knight Inlet, a coastal community in southern British Columbia.
Her selection as the Greens’ NWT candidate was first reported by the CBC and had not been otherwise publicized. Rod Leggett, a spokesperson for the party, confirmed the move on Friday night.
The other NWT candidates announced to date are Rebecca Alty for the Liberals, Kimberly Fairman for the Conservatives and Kelvin Kotchilea for the New Democrats.
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Davidson has worked as a guardian for her First Nation and is described by her party as a cancer survivor. The Green Party has called her a “critical voice in slowing resource depletion and addressing the climate crisis.”
She is currently appealing against a 60-day jail sentence for her part in the 2021 Fairy Creek protests against old-growth logging.
That appeal was heard last month, Vancouver Island-based CHEK News reports.
Davidson had been convicted in April last year on seven counts of criminal contempt for breaking an injunction granted to forestry company Teal-Jones Group, now Teal Cedar.
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The Green Party said more information about her candidacy would follow in a news release.
Her connection to the NWT was not immediately clear.
While past federal elections in the territory have included candidates who don’t live in the riding, they are rare.
The only candidate in the past 20 years to have had no apparent connection to the territory was the Conservatives’ Lea Mollison, a Thunder Bay resident who infamously ran in 2021 without saying a word in public, appearing in any debate or visiting the NWT.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to call an election on Sunday with election day falling in late April or early May.
