New MLAs Olsen, Furstenau tasked with starting ‘new era’ for Greens

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At a Green Party rally in Victoria days before the B.C. election, candidate Sonia Furstenau told supporters about a message she'd received from a woman who'd voted in an advance poll.

"No compromises for strategic voting – I got to mark my X exactly where I wanted it to be, thanks to you," the woman said, according to Ms. Furstenau.

Others appear to have felt the same way.

Ms. Furstenau won the Cowichan Valley riding with 37.2 per cent of votes cast, becoming one of three Green Party MLAs headed to the legislature. She will join party Leader Andrew Weaver and Adam Olsen, who took Saanich North and the Islands on his second try in the riding.

Ms. Furstenau and Mr. Olsen both come to the legislature with strong community ties and reputations built on environmental issues.

Formerly a high-school teacher, Ms. Furstenau played a key role in fighting a contaminated soil disposal facility near Shawnigan Lake, about 40 kilometres northwest of Victoria.

The province issued a permit for the facility in 2013, despite concerns raised by area residents.

But Ms. Furstenau and other opponents argued the project – built uphill from Shawnigan Lake, a popular recreation site and source of drinking water for several thousand people in the region – should not have been approved and fought doggedly to shut it down through legal action and political pressure.

Opponents raised concerns about contaminants leaking into nearby soil or water, especially when it rained.

As a director with the Cowichan Valley Regional District, which opposed the soil facility, Ms. Furstenau was front and centre in the battle, spending days in court hearings and helping to organize community events.

She was acclaimed as the Green Party candidate for Cowichan Valley last October.

In February, environment minister Mary Polak cancelled the permit for the Shawnigan Lake facility, citing a pattern of non-compliance by the proponent.

In Victoria on Wednesday, Ms. Furstenau said she felt the Green wins were an important turning point for the province.

"We are the first Green caucus elected in North America – that's historic," she said. "We are opening up a whole new era."

In Saanich North and the Islands, Mr. Olsen was a second-time candidate, having lost a tight three-way race by a mere 379 votes in 2013.

This time, he benefited from political experience – he was interim leader of the B.C. Green Party from 2013 to 2015 – and a beefed-up campaign.

"I spent about 18 months as the interim leader of the B.C. Green Party over this past term," Mr. Olsen said Wednesday in an interview with Global television. "Working alongside Andrew Weaver and watching him work in the legislature gave me a very good understanding of the issues.

"In the last election, I joined the race in January of 2013 – so I only had a few months to get geared up for the election. This time around, it's been a four-year process, and an investment in building relationships in my riding and, as well, understanding B.C. politics and the issues more deeply," he added.

Mr. Olsen was born and raised on Tsartlip First Nation in Brentwood Bay, the son of an Indigenous father and a non-Indigenous mother.

"When I was young, it felt like the world was divided between on and off the reserve – Indians and non-Indians – and I wasn't sure where I fit," Mr. Olsen said in an opinion piece that was part of his campaign.

"As I grew older, I realized that having a foot in both worlds was a gift. It taught me that people on both sides of any issue have legitimate concerns, that people are often unable to appreciate opposing opinions, and that it takes hard work to bring people together to find shared solutions."

Before turning to provincial politics, Mr. Olsen served two terms as councillor with the municipality of Central Saanich.

On the environmental front, he has spoken out against Malahat LNG, a proposed LNG facility near Mill Bay on Vancouver Island.