NIPR Greens Executive Members

Jay strongly supports the six values of the Green Party and has been involved with the party since 1983.  Supporting the party as a campaign worker through many elections, a financial agent between elections and a candidate in the 1991 BC election.

Jay first landed in BC as a veterinarian in the Nanaimo region in 1981, followed by a post doc at the UBC Pulmonary Research Lab.  A Master of Public Health allowed Jay to branch out into environmental monitoring for BC Environment and then for the last eighteen years with Health Canada in Ottawa on human biomonitoring in the high Arctic.

Jay’s work in the high arctic, his wife and two sons have brought to the fore the need for real changes in how the human race relates to the world and how we need to make the six Green values ( Ecological Wisdom, Non-violence, Participatory Democracy, Respect for Diversity, Social Justice and Sustainability) the values we all live by on this planet.

Jay and his family have settled in the Comox valley and he hopes that his work as the Financial Agent for the NIPR Greens will help us elect a Green Party candidate and spread Green values.

Dr Mark Tapper was brought up in rural England.  He was a scholar at Keble College, Oxford.  He obtained his basic medical degrees and a D. Phil. from Oxford University.  He has lived in Canada since 1975.  He trained as a specialist in psychiatry at the University of Alberta.  He worked as a psychiatrist all his career, the last 20 years in the Comox Valley and north Vancouver island.   During his career he was a member of many local, provincial and national committees concerned with psychiatric practice.  He was an Associate Clinical Professor at University of Alberta and UBC.  He had an interest in the interaction of psychiatry and the law and was a member of the Mental Health Act Review Board in both Alberta and BC.  Dr Tapper has been married to Pat for 35 years.  They have 2 children and 2 grandchildren. Mark enjoys living in a place where the stars are visible at night and the beauty and fragility of nature are obvious.

Douglas Cowell is a retired photographer, photojournalist and writer.  As a young man from the prairies he settled in the BC Interior in the early 70’s and signed on to work as a logger. Unknowingly he had launched himself into his life’s work.  After a couple of years he withdrew from logging and began treeplanting, a trade he worked in for nine years, becoming intimately familiar with clearcuts in every corner of the province.  Seeing a remarkable story unfolding in front of him, he began working to create a documentary film about the BNC forests, the cutting and replanting of them and the remarkable, emerging culture of the hippie treeplanters. The project was adopted by NFB and won the 1978 “Jury’s Choice” award at the 1978 Banff Film Festival among several others. It remains in the NFB catalogue today. 

I am honoured to have been asked to join the North Island-Powell River EDA.  I am someone who has come to political action late in life.  Although I always voted, it wasn’t until the 2015 election that I became involved in a campaign.  I volunteered for Brenda Sayers, and that was a privilege.  I discovered I really liked canvassing, too.  Since finding a home in the Green Party, I feel a real sense of purpose to political organizing - that we are a party that transcends the usual political bickering and partisanship.

Cynthia has a passion for Grass Roots /Sustainable and Project Development in the arts, environment and education sectors. To this end she started a Farmers’ Market, renovated a historic home to create a centre for the Arts, and launched a private international College in Vancouver. More recently she acted as Director of Education for West Moberly First Nations. Since moving to Powell River, she worked as a coordinator for the Powell River Child, Youth and Family Inter-Services Management Team followed by a stint as Coordinator of Welcoming Communities. Her most recent projects include Team Leader for the Green Party in Powell River and active member of the Climate Action Powell River committee. She dreams of starting theatre that focuses on issues related to social justice and sustainable development. Her other passions include spending time with her awesome daughter , reading, intelligent conversation and musicology.