Corinna Morhart of the federal Liberal Party

Corinna Morhart is currently a social worker for the Ministry of Children and Family Development. She also sits on the Northern Health Advisory Committee in Prince Rupert. Previously, she sat on the Board of Governors for the Northwest Community College.

Ms. Morhart is passionate about social issues and believes strongly in the importance of education. She completed the Bachelor of Social Work program at UNBC in 2007. She also completed a Certificate program in child welfare in May 2008. Prior to attending UNBC, she completed a Certificate in Entrepreneurial Tourism Management & Business Administration and a Business Administration Diploma at Northwest Community College in Prince Rupert.

On her mother’s side, Ms. Morhart is Tsimshian, and her father is second generation Canadian from Austria. She was born and raised in Terrace, attending Kiti K’shan Primary, Cassie Hall Elementary, Skeena Jr. Secondary and Caledonia Senior Secondary.

Ms. Morhart resides in Prince Rupert and has three grown children: Natasha, Jessica and David, and a grand-daughter, , Eva.

“Our main priority is to protect the children, whether its sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect then that’s when social workers are mandated by the province to step in,” said Morhart, who felt comfortable that she wasn’t hurting anyone by taking what she believes to be an opportunity to get politically involved.

Morhart might even use the campaign to highlight some of the North Coast’s health troubles. While she may not win any political debate with thickly worded rhetoric, she believes her skills as a backroom networker and in social work gives her an opportunity to shine for Skeena-Bulkley Valley.

She wants a dialysis machine in Prince Rupert so that those with liver problems in the city do not have to go all the way to Houston to receive necessary attention.

When it comes to health care, she feels that Northern health has a long way to go - that the decision to divide the provincial health care system into separate health systems has hurt the North through neglect from Victoria.

Luckily for her, Morhart was given a one-month leave and is in the thick of competition to represent the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding.

As a female Liberal candidate in this riding, it does seem she has a bit of a wall to climb.

Consider that females only make up 21 per cent of the parliament seating arrangement and it may begin to feel a bit male-orientated. Given that Iona Campognolo, is the one female candidate in the past to represent this riding - when it was all-encompassing Skeena - it has been a challenge for a female candidate to climb the wall and make it over to Ottawa.

In this year’s battle, there are two female candidates and three male candidates.

Morhart, and Conservative candidate Sharon Smith, will bring a woman’s voice to the discussion and debates about this riding’s future.

However, Morhart, for her part, isn’t planning on making this election about her gender. She wants to focus on separate issues like Health Care and reconciliation with North Coast First Nations - big enough issues in their own right.

“What I have discovered through my education was the impact of residential schools and it is not just the one generation of survivors but it’s a multi-generation thing. And alcohol and drugs have been a way for many of the survivors to cope with their childhood experiences and they were robbed of their childhood. This is still something that needs to be addressed,” said Morhart.

The current running through this city, she said, is the tension between nations but it is something she wants to help ease, to let go of the elastic band. In a city that is 32 per cent First Nations, and built on traditional Tsimshian land, it is inevitable that tackling First Nations reconciliation could help her come voting day.

Morhart, who is of half-Tsimshian and half-Austrian heritage, said that one thing she would like to do is build learning environments between all the nations of Skeena-Bulkely Valley.

“It’s not just an instant thing, it’s not written in a book. Someone once said to me “just give me a book and I will read about the Tsimshian people,” but that’s not how it is. We’ve got the heart, as someone else said when you got the beating of the drum the heart is there.”

Morhart isn’t suggesting that six hundred years of tension will ease because of her arrival in politics, but she does believe that she offers a different point of view than her competitors. And that is something she hopes voters look at when they come to vote on Oct. 14.

Morhart also wants voters to think strategically, something that Smith has called for, and something that the NDP’s Nathan Cullen, the Green’s Hondo Arendt and the CHP’s Rod Taylor are against.

“I don’t think the communication between government and this riding has been good. I’m not underestimating Nathan Cullen’s potential but I feel that if you are not in government you do not seem to be able to get the message across about your riding and the needs and concerns that are here,” said Morhart.

Morhart hopes that 2008 is the year her party gets a shot at spreading the message about the North Coast.

Will that be enough? Voters will have to wait until the paint dries on this election to find out.