Doug Donaldson

Doug Donaldson served as an elected 3-term Member of the Legislature Assembly (MLA) in the province of British Columbia representing the remote-rural constituency of Stikine for 11 years. As the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (2017-2020) in a new government, some of the projects he led were: a modernization of land use planning; creating a long-term strategy for wildlife management and habitat conservation; amendments to forestry legislation including the Forest Range and Practices Act and the Forest Act; a strategic review and action plan on old forest management; and the implementation of a caribou recovery action plan. He has also held public office at the municipal government level, serving as a Village of Hazelton municipal councillor for a decade.

Doug lives on the territories of the Gitxsan First Nation in northwest British Columbia. He worked supporting the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs on the successful Delgamuukw-Gisdaywa aboriginal title case to the Supreme Court of Canada as communications director with the Gitxsan Chiefs Office. He was a co-founder of Storytellers’ Foundation, a Hazelton-based NGO focused on community economic development and reconciliation, and established the Gitxsan-Wet’suwet’en School of Journalism. 

Doug was a fellow with the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida and holds a MA in journalism and a BSc in wildlife biology. His research interests include political engagement in rural communities centred on connection to land, water and kin.