On Tuesday, Colin Hamm called up the Green party office to inquire about volunteering during the provincial election campaign and by Thursday he was the party's candidate in Nechako Lakes.
The 49-year-old from Fort St. James said he's been voting Green for the last two decades and has been living a green lifestyle for just as long. Now he's ready to take the next step and let his name stand for election.
"The Green party is a natural fit for me because I'm instinctively and philosophically aligned with the green movement," he said.
A dedicated environmentalist, Hamm believes in leading by example which has included building his own home and outbuildings in an environmentally friendly way. He kept the buildings small so they would be easier to heat and leave less of an energy footprint.
Hamm said some in the environmental community have a tendency to be divisive by prescribing solutions for people, but he prefers a different tack.
"The better way to go is to model good stewardship and practice what you preach," he said. "I think we all have our own unique way to reduce our ecological footprint and people should be free to explore them in their own way."
Although the Greens are closely tied with the environment, Hamm said he's attracted to the party because they're welcoming to people from all different backgrounds.
Finding ways to build a sustainable economy is part of the Green platform, but Hamm said that doesn't preclude the development of the resource sector in northern B.C.
"Protecting the land is protecting our jobs," he said. "We are a party that cares deeply about the economy, but we just take a slightly different approach. . . . We want the economic activity to stay in the community instead of shipping the money to elsewhere and abroad."
Hamm spent a decade working at designing children's playgrounds, but more recently has been teaching English as a second language. For the past two years in Fort St. James he's been tutoring ESL students online and editing a book, but has put those projects aside to focus on the campaign.
Hamm is the fourth candidate to join the race in Nechako Lakes. He's facing Liberal incumbent John Rustad and challengers Dan Brooks of the Conservatives and Sussanne Skidmore-Hewlett of the NDP.
Although the Greens have never won a seat in a provincial election, he said the party is poised for a breakthrough this year.
"The time is right and the party has matured to the point where we're ready to take the reigns of power and not just stand symbolically," he said.
