Season 3, Episode 11 - Jennifer Rice

The rainbownation's Podcast

Hello! This week we have been able to sit down with B.C. North-coast MLA Jennifer Rice. Here is a biography of Jennifer Rice:

Jennifer Rice was elected the MLA for North Coast in 2013, 2017 and re-elected in 2020. She was recently appointed to the role of Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Health.

She has worked hard to improve safety for people travelling along the Highway of Tears (highway 16) delivering improved public transportation options such as BC Bus North, the community shuttle bus system and with improved cell service between Prince Rupert and Prince George.

Jennifer has recently secured $65 million dollars to help replace Prince Rupert’s water distribution system and secured nearly $127 million dollars to replace Prince Rupert Middle school.

She is married to her partner Andrea and is mother to almost 4 years-old Lua and new mom to almost 4 month old Theo.

We had a great conversation in her office downtown Prince Rupert on a Sunday morning. We talked about where she is from, how she chose Prince Rupert as her home and how she got into politics. We also talked about the now infamous planned "roundabout" announcement for Prince Rupert and dissected what it will entail . It was a great candid conversation about what is like being LGBT in politics, in a small town and she gives some advice for anyone wanting to jump into the political realm as a profession. We talked about how the anti-sogi narrative is being perceived in today's increasingly political climate in not only being part of the LGBT community, but as an ally.

We feel it's a "Part One" to a longer conversation, so please take a listen and enjoy!

Also - we missed you! we will keep in touch more! xo
Editor's Note:

* During our recording, Jennifer failed to mention her new MLA colleague, Joan Phillip (Who ran in former MLA Melanie Mark's riding and won. ) Jennifer means no disrespect to her colleague or indigenous people with her on air omission.