A Fort Nelson aboriginal councillor will take on Bob Zimmer and the Conservatives in the 2015 federal election.
Kathi Dickie, a former chief, was acclaimed as the NDP candidate in Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies Wednesday. The riding was the last in B.C. to name an NDP candidate.
Dickie could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday morning.
Riding president Judy Fox-McGuire, a former provincial candidate, said the party is "quite excited" about Dickie's candidacy.
"When she said she was interested and we started looking into her as a candidate, we were struck by how she's always stood up for issues that have so much in common with the NDP philosophy and policy," she said.
The party has committed to an inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women within 100 days of winning office.
"So many of those women come from this area and this province," Fox-McGuire said. Dickie also has a "background in resource development" as a First Nations leader.
Whether Dickie's candidacy will help with First Nations voters remains to be seen.
The party had its strongest showings on First Nations reserves in 2011.
The NDP won only three polling stations in the Peace Region, all on First Nations reserves - in Fort Ware, Kelly Lake and Moberly Lake.
In Fort Ware, home of the Kwadacha Nation, 84 per cent of the band's 96 voters cast a ballot for the NDP.
According to Indigenous Politics, a non-partisan blog that promotes First Nations involvement in politics, 13.5 per cent of the region's population identifies as aboriginal.
Conservative Bob Zimmer won the riding with 61 per cent of the vote in 2011, to the NDP's 25.
The NDP grew its vote share by eight per cent in 2011.
