Bob Simpson & John Horgan

Quesnel is one of those towns … where surprisingly little has changed in decades. The surrounding landscape is dominated by pine plantations and service roads that lead to old gold mines. Home to 12,000 people, the community lies … along the highway that follows the Fraser River through central B.C. It’s a forestry town, and you could be forgiven for assuming that local politicians would want to see logging continue in the same old way. How, then, to explain Mayor Bob Simpson, who sounds like a Green Party candidate and wants nothing less than to revolutionize the biggest industry in the province? …During his eight years as mayor, Bob Simpson has been intent on making the town a model for sustainable forestry. …“You can’t fix global forestry issues at the UN or the provincial level in Victoria. We have a scale right here that can work,” Simpson says.