Four-term Port McNeill councillor and former school trustee Shelley Downey is throwing her hat in the ring again as the Conservative Party of Canada candidate for the federal riding of North Island-Powell River.
In the last federal election, 2019, Downey came in a close second to the NDP’s Rachel Blaney, who claimed 23,481 votes compared to 20,131 ballots cast for the Conservative candidate. Born in Fort St. John, Downey spent her childhood in northern BC but has lived on Vancouver Island since 1991.
She has done accounting work in the fishing, tourism and helicopter sectors. Since 2008, Downey has focused on the family drug store business.
Downey’s website reveals little about her positions on the resource and economic issues important to North Islanders. However, her Twitter feed suggests that she’s the candidate of choice for those who want the status quo on old-growth logging and open-net pen fish factories.
Recent Re-Tweets included an interview for CBC’s On The Island with forester Bill Dumont. Dumont touts the province’s ”world-class“ logging industry and accused old-growth conservationists of spreading lies and misinformation. In another re-Tweet, Mowi Canada West employee Kaitlin Guitard called farm-raised salmon “the most climate-friendly animal protein in the world.”
In her unsuccessful 2019 federal election campaign, Downey’s platform included a call for lower taxes and promises to balance the needs of the economy and conservation on the BC Coast.
Downey has a Bachelor of Arts from Trinity Western University, ran a youth program for her church and coached high school volleyball. She currently serves as treasurer for Mount Waddington Community Futures and the Rotary Club of Port McNeill. She and her husband Ron have four children and four granddaughters.
