(Editor’s note: The Westcoaster.ca asked candidates from each political party to submit personal profiles.)

Jen Fisher-Bradley is a proud candidate for the Canadian Action Party in the federal election, Jan. 23.
She was born in Hillingdon England in 1954, came to Canada when she was two and has lived in Quebec, Ontario and, since 1971, mostly on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
She ran in the federal election in 2004 as an independent in Esquimalt- Juan de Fuca, which is when she first heard the sensibilities of the CAP message from her fellow candidate Shawn Giles.
In September 2004, Jen and her partner, Stephen, bought their first home together in Port Alberni.
Jen is a traditional and digital artist. You can see her paintings at http://www.millenniumartgallery.com.
In 1996 she returned to school as a mature student and attended the Centre for Digital Imaging and Sound in Burnaby where she was trained in the digital arts program.
As a result she learned to enjoy "high tech" and especially the new applications of the mix of art, design and computer animation technology.
Her favourite art is a mix of traditional and digital art.
Confused?
An example is an original acrylic painting photographed at high resolution and then enriched in a digital program and perhaps animated too, with special effects, like fog, or other atmospheric effects and a soundtrack.
Eventually, as a result of her art work, she came to understand what a powerful tool for democracy the internet is and she has since shifted her focus to becoming a full-time volunteer democracy activist.
She feels the digital divide, people being excluded from the online conversation, like this one, by the inability to access the Internet, is a very serious social injustice issue.
Jen says, "We need to work towards getting everyone talking to each other. I am a relentless in professing the idiom.
"Education Changes Things."
When we speak to each other we are educating each other about our circumstances. This is why a truly democratic dialogue is so important."
During the BC provincial election Jen was involved with electoral reform and became a proponent of the single-transferable vote, or STV system proposed by the gender balanced British Columbia Citizens' Assembly.
She ran for MLA for Democratic Reform BC who were the only party officially registered as YES supporters of STV.
Jen says of her politics, "I am a grassroots issue-based political entity and I run with parties whose message makes sense to me, but I am not an endorser of the status quo, "Loyal to my party no matter what.
“I believe that attitude is very dangerous and can lead to compromise, power abuse and corruption."
Jen's thoughts on election 2006:
Since Canada joined NAFTA and since income tax reform in 1989 when the RRSP, RRIF and mutual fund for pension plan schemes kicked in, the Canadian economy has been running farther and farther away from citizen control, and the results have been devastating to all but the very wealthiest among us.
This is a product of a flawed economic policy, which is at the heart of the increase in poverty and the scandal of increased violence against women worldwide.

I come to election 2006 as a human-rights activist – being a founding member of the Vancouver Burma Roundtable, an outcome of the actions in protest of the APEC summit in 1997 in Vancouver B.C., and I attended the actions against the WTO in Seattle in 1999.
I come to CAP and to this election as a seasoned candidate just having run for mayor in Port Alberni where I garnered 688 votes and my opponent, the incumbent garnered 2760.
I understand the critical importance to the quality of our democracy of being there in the elections, so that voters have options and alternative issues and policies can be heard out.
This is my long-term vision for democracy in Canada; that other smaller parties can have a fair chance to play a distinctive role in shaping the political destiny of our nation.
Recently, we celebrated Human Rights Day the 57th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I find the policies of the Canadian Action Party /Parti Action Canadienne to be in line with my own current beliefs and solutions.
The use of the Bank of Canada Act is a critical instrument to return us to a sane monetary policy that can take us forward and help us to fulfill our goals as a nation that helps those in need, bringing peace and ending poverty as a nation state member of the UN.
Our party is proud to bring Canadians’ proven resources such as the Bank of Canada and a sovereignty policy that focuses on the real issue in this election; whether or not we have a democratic nation at all.
Veterans, seniors, youth, homeless, single parents, working families, businesses, farmers, fishers and forest harvesters, and lifelong learners, environmentalists and human rights activists, entrepreneurs and professionals will all find something in our comprehensive Canadian policy that applies to their heartfelt concerns.
First Nations folk, if you have never voted before because you have felt outside the process, this is the election to participate because without a strong Canada there is no Delgamuuk, no duty to consult and no nation with which to have nation to nation treaty negotiations.
Please meet with your local candidate form the Canadian Action Party and get a copy of the book by Bill Krehm "A Power Unto Itself - The Bank of Canada."
It will be the very best $5 you spend during this election and it will give you hope and an understanding of why we feel so demoralized these days when it comes to who to vote for and what is the root cause of our national and global troubles.
Our party has focused on economic and monetary reform policy because Canadian Action Party research has proven that flawed economics is the root cause of our decline as a sovereign nation state.