Holly Nelson is a Canadian writer, poet, activist and print reporter. She served as leader of the

Green Party of Manitoba The Green Party of Manitoba (french: Parti vert du Manitoba) ('GPM') is a green provincial political party in Manitoba, Canada, founded on November 11, 1998. The party is legally autonomous from the Green Party of Canada, though for several yea ...

from 2005 to 2006.

Early life and career

Nelson was born in

Mankato Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the state of Minnesota. The population was 44,488 according to the 2020 census, making it the 21st-largest city in Minnesota, and the 5th-largest outside of the Minnea ...

, Minnesota, the daughter of electrical engineer Forrest Nelson and poet Natalie Nelson. She has lived in Canada since 1973, taking Canadian citizenship in 1980. She worked for Manitoba Hydro as an engineering aide for 20 years, designing and drafting electrical substations and control circuitry. She left this position to study journalism at Red River College.

Writer

Nelson has written for several media outlets, including the '' Canadian Broadcasting Corporation'', the ''Manitoba Co-operator'' and the ''Herald Leader Press''. She won the 2002 Eric and Jack Wells Award for Excellence in Journalism, and has participated in several arts festivals in Winnipeg. Her first publication is a 2004 poetry compilation, ''All These Stars...and Me With No Bucket''.

Green Party leader

Nelson joined the Green Party of Manitoba in 2003, and was acclaimed as its leader at the party's annual meeting in November 2005. The position had been vacant since March, when

Markus Buchart Markus Buchart is a lawyer and politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was the first leader of the Green Party of Manitoba, serving from 1999 until his resignation in March 2005. Early life and private career Buchart has a Bachelor of Arts degree fr ...

resigned as the result of ongoing divisions within the party. Nelson advocated reaching out to older and more conservative Manitoba residents, rather than relying on left-wing campus activists for the party's membership. She also advocated proportional representation, and said that the Greens would only run candidates in a small number of ridings in the next election. She wrote again the construction of a new Winnipeg

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

in December 2005, arguing that such enterprises routinely injure young workers and do not provide economic benefits to their host communities.Holly Nelson, "Send slaughterhouse packing", ''Winnipeg Free Press'', 3 December 2005, A15. Nelson resigned as party leader in September 2006, having accepted an out-of-province position. She has never campaigned for public office.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Holly 21st-century Canadian poets Journalists from Manitoba Canadian women journalists Canadian women poets Female Canadian political party leaders American emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada People from Mankato, Minnesota Year of birth missing (living people) Women in Manitoba politics Writers from Manitoba Leaders of the Green Party of Manitoba Living people Red River College alumni 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian women non-fiction writers