Lynn Oliphant

Lynn Oliphant is a professor emeritus from the Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan and a founding member of the Prairie Institute for Human Ecology. Oliphant was a frequent candidate for the Green Party of Saskatchewan and a one-time candidate for the Green Party of Canada, but was never elected.

Life and career 
Oliphant received a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Washington and moved to Saskatchewan in 1971. There he became actively involved with the Saskatchewan Environmental Society.

Oliphant began running as a political candidate in Saskatchewan for the New Green Alliance in 1999, a party that would later be renamed the Green Party of Saskatchewan. In a province that has never elected a Green candidate to the Legislative Assembly, Oliphant never received more than 291 votes in four provincial elections between 1999 and 2011. Oliphant also ran as a federal Green Party candidate in the 2004 federal election.

Oliphant has been recognized for promoting sustainability. In the late 1990s, Oliphant constructed a straw-bale house near Aberdeen, what he called a "physical demonstration of an alternative home" that could function in the Prairie climate. In 2005, he received a Canadian Environment Award for his work on the Craik Sustainable Living Project, which was a project proposed by the Prairie Institute for Human Ecology. In 2016, Oliphant founded a private graveyard on his own property that could offer sustainable burials at twelve gravesites, which he called Prairie Sky Cemetery. In 2023, at the age of 80, Oliphant was one of seven Saskatchewan residents who took the provincial government to court over its failure to achieve greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that the continued expansion of fossil fuel-fired electricity generation ultimately violates Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Electoral results

Provincial 

|-

 
|NDP
|Gord Bedient
|align="right"|1,807
|align="right"|23.24%
|align="right"|-4.77%

|- bgcolor="white"
!align="left" colspan=3|Total
!align="right"|7,775
!align="right"|100.00%
!align="right"|

|-

 
|NDP
|Graham Addley
|align="right"|3,410
|align="right"|40.64
|align="right"|-5.95

|- bgcolor="white"
!align="left" colspan=3|Total
!align="right"|8,391
!align="right"|100.00
!align="right"|

|-
 
| style="width: 130px" |NDP
|Graham Addley
|align="right"|3,616
|align="right"|46.59
|align="right"|+2.17

|- bgcolor="white"
!align="left" colspan=3|Total
!align="right"|7,761
!align="right"|100.00
!align="right"|

|-

| style="width: 130px" |NDP
|Chris Axworthy
|align="right"|2,653
|align="right"|56.68
|align="right"|-7.55

|Prog. Conservative
|Gwen Katzman
|align="right"|153
|align="right"|3.27
|align="right"|-

|- bgcolor="white"
!align="left" colspan=3|Total
!align="right"|4,681
!align="right"|100.00
!align="right"|

Federal

External links
 Canadian Geographic Environmental Community Award, 2005
 Emma Lake Campus - biography
Sustainability advocates
People from Saskatoon
Canadian environmentalists
Green Party of Canada candidates in the 2004 Canadian federal election
Academic staff of the University of Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan candidates for Member of Parliament
Living people
Candidates in Saskatchewan provincial elections
Year of birth missing (living people)

References