A former chief councillor of the Lake Babine Nation is now the New Democratic Party candidate in the Nechako Lakes riding for the Oct. 19 provincial election.

Murphy Abraham will be running against John Rustad, the leader of the B.C. Conservative party, who has held the riding through five provincial elections.

 

During his tenure as the Lake Babine Nation chief councillor, the First Nation received $50 million to build culture centres and other buildings and negotiated a deal with the province to gain control of 20,000 hectares of Crown lands within the Lake Babine traditional territory.

 

Abraham was unseated in a bid for re-election for a third three-year term this June by running second to Wilf Adam, himself a former chief councillor. Six candidates were in the running for the top office in that election.

 

Abraham's declaration rounds up the candidate list for the Nechako Riding for the fall election.  Another potential candidate for the riding, Houston Mayor Shane Brienen, who was named the B. C. United candidate before Kevin Falcon dissolved the campaign last month in favour of supporting the B.C. Conservative Party, remains undecided about running as an independent. 

 

Brienen concerns revolve around fundraising for his campaign all over again with the Sept. 28 Election BC candidate deadline soon approaching. The election funds raised by Brienen in the riding remains frozen with the B.C. United account after Falcon's announcement. 

Murphy and Brienen, if he decides to run as an independent, will be running against Rustad who was first elected as a B.C. Liberal in 2005 for Prince George-Omineca, which was later renamed Nechako Lakes. Under Premier Christy Clark, he served as Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation and Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

In Aug. 2022, Rustad became an independent after he was removed from the party by B.C. Liberal leader Kevin Falcon for retweeting a controversial post suggesting climate change is not caused by carbon dioxide emissions. Before being removed from the caucus, he was the B.C. Liberals' forestry critic.

In March 2023, Rustad was acclaimed the leader of the then-dormant provincial Conservative party. Since then he has grown the provincial Conservative party by absorbing defecting MLAs from BC United (the new name for B.C. Liberals). He eventually swallowed the B.C. United party so that only the B.C. Conservatives are the main party facing the NDP. They are now running neck and neck.

As Rustad continues to campaign for the provincial race, members of the Nechako Lakes riding have voiced disappointment that he is neglecting the riding after unceremoniously dropping out of an all candidates debate scheduled by the Vanderhoof Chamber of Commerce for Sept. 25.