Bridget Lacey

Growing up in the beautiful rolling foothills of Southern Alberta, Bridget has a deep love for the Earth and works hard to protect and steward it.

 

Raised on her Grandparents' farm SW of Turner Valley, she comes from a large family who all share a love for growing good things.  This is thanks largely to the influence of her father and mother, WIlliam and Jacqueline Lacey, who were among the first certified organic growers in Alberta in the 1990's, and helped establish the organic standard in the province of Alberta. 

 

William and Jackie raised their five children to work alongside them in the gardens and greenhouses where they grew market garden produce, and to take their veggies, especially Will's famous hothouse tomatoes, to the local Millarville Farmer's Market - where Jackie was Manager for fifteen years.

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Bridget moved to the city to attend the University of Calgary in 1999, where she worked in the produce sections of Community Natural Foods and Planet Organic, among a variety of other jobs including working as a server at the River Cafe, a barista at Steeps Tea House, and as a desk trader at National Bank Financial. 

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She became heavily involved in Grassroots political organizing in 2002, and worked to bring awareness to the need for electoral reform to include proportional representation voting, environmental stewardship and protection, and greater social and economic justice including the eradication of poverty, among other issues. 

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While living in Calgary, she spearheaded an initiative in 2006 to bring an outdoor market focused on local vendors selling sustainable products to Calgary's Uptown (Beltline) district, the Green Market 17, which ran for two summers.

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In 2009, following the birth of her first son, Bridget returned to Turner Valley to live closer to her family.  Here she worked with a dynamic group of like-minded friends to create the Grow Good Things CSA. 

 

This included an organic seedling nursery as well as many projects centred around permaculture practices, including garden bed and landscape installations, as well as growing and marketing their produce which was cultivated across a number of sites in the western Foothills.  The cooperative dissolved the following year, but Bridget continued the CSA for one more season, and rekindled the seedling nursery every spring until 2016.

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In 2011, Bridget began making and selling Earth's Kind natural stone jewellery at the Millarville Farmer's Market.  Over the years, she has has produced a number of different products for sale at the market, including her own TeAmo tea blends, hillbilly wine glasses, hula hoops, needle-felted faeries and angels, and beginning in 2015, the Queen Bee Alchemy product line of body care products.

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In 2016, Bridget moved home to her family farm, where she currently resides with her two sons, Owen and Liam (Ozzy), in the home her grandparents built. Her beloved grandmother, June (Denning) Danforth passed away in 2016, and her adored grandfather, Owen Danforth, as well as her hardworking Father, William passed in 2017.

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In the summer of 2018, Bridget was involved in a head-on collision with her brother Michael, just outside of their farm gate one fateful spring evening after her son's baseball practice.  Though all parties thankfully survived the crash, and her two sons were not hurt, she and her brother suffered extensive injuries, Bridget with a fractured and dislocated ankle and hip.  The road to recovery has been long and painful, but following ankle replacement surgery this past spring, Bridget is now returning to action with renewed strength and determination to continue with her life's purpose of creating major positive impacts in the world.

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In 2019, Bridget ran in the federal election as the Green Party candidate for the Foothills riding.  This experience earned her a great deal of public speaking and media experience, and fortified her resolve to advocate for social justice, environmental protection, and the need to transition to a new economy based on greater equality and opportunity, as well the the development of the sustainable technologies and industries that will fuel our world in a sustainable way into the future.

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Bridget currently works for a local municipality in Legislative Services, communications, and Community Services.  In her spare time, she enjoys gardening and "making" so much, that she has decided to turn her passions into a business which involves coaching and educating others about regenerative agriculture and the homesteading skills that can produce greater self-sufficiency and fortify local food security.

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Bridget currently serves as the President of the Green Party Foothills Electoral District Association, as well as on the boards of the Foothills Energy Co-operative and the Sheep Creek Arts Council.

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In her "spare" time, Bridget loves to write, sing, play piano and make art.  She has dreams to take her message of renewing the Earth through regenerative agriculture to a broader audience, and to share with others the vision of a future in which humans have adapted their industries, technologies and practices to live in greater harmony with the miraculous planet we live upon.