Meet the Candidates — Rick Stewart PPC
By Nelson Daily Staff
Canadians go to the polls on Monday, October 21, 2019 to elect a new government that will guide the electorate for the next four years.
In the Kootenay Columbia riding, four candidates — Rick Stewart of the People’s Party of Canada, Rob Morrison of the Conservative Party, Abra Brynne of the Green Party and Robin Goldsbury of the Liberal Party — are challenging current MP Wayne Stetski of the NDP for a seat in the House of Commons.
The Nelson Daily is giving candidates a chance to speak to Kootenay Columbia voters prior to the October vote.
Today, Rick Stewart of the People’s Party of Canada speaks to voters in the Kootenay Columbia riding.
Richard (Rick) Dale Stewart was born May 1,1957 in Calgary, Alberta and is a retired Registered Professional Forester residing in his home of 29 years near Nelson, British Columbia.
In 1974 after attending high school in Kaslo and working on a summer fire suppression crew at Bush Harbour north of Golden, Rick joined the Canadian Armed Forces. In 1976, Rick was posted to Montreal for seven months as part of the military contingent providing security and communications at the Olympic games.
After an honorable discharge from the military in 1977 he worked as a logger and supervised summer Fire Suppression Crews for the Forest Service in Mica Creek north of Revelstoke. In 1981 he earned a diploma in Forest Technology at Selkirk College in Castlegar and a Bachelor of Forest Science from the University of Alberta in 1986.
During the summer of 1983, Puulaaki Oy, a large wood procurement company in Finland sponsored Rick for four months employment which was followed by a one year student exchange program in 1983/84 at Clemson University, South Carolina where he studied and worked as an assistant in the Forest Pathology lab. He competed as a member of the Clemson Forestry Club and won the orienteering event during a major university competition in Alexandria, Louisiana to help Clemson take top spot in the 1984 Forestry Competition.
In 1987 he was hired by the Ministry of Forests in Williams Lake and returned to Nelson in 1990 as the Regional Forest Health Officer, followed a few years later as an Audit Team Manager with the Forest Practices Board reporting on corporate and government forest practices in all areas of the province. In 2000, Rick left government work and incorporated his own company to provide environmental consulting services to major oil companies in Western Canada. After a successful career, he retired in 2015.
During his working life, Rick always had a dog or two and pursued a number of interests including hang gliding, scuba diving, skiing, hunting and fishing. His greatest passions are river tripping by canoe with his dogs to rebalance and relax and enjoying his home in Nelson that he calls the best place to live in Canada.
In 2019 he became the Kootenay-Columbia Candidate for the People’s Party of Canada.
With more time on his hands and his strong interest in politics Rick has become concerned with what he calls, “the utter insanity of the governments large deficits and additional taxation while pursuing a program of dubious social engineering. They are driving away investment and placing a huge yoke of debt on our children.
“This is unacceptable, and I won’t be lectured about Canadian values. I am Canadian, and I hope to represent the hard working people in the riding of Kootenay-Columbia as the People’s Party of Canada Member of Parliament. I will always fight to ensure common sense policies are the norm and we maintain a strong country and economy for the benefit of current and future generations.”
