Despite being in local politics for almost ten years, Stoney Stoltenberg doesn’t consider himself a politician.
Stoltenberg served as a director with the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako for two terms from from 2008 until 2014 and then jumped back on board again in 2022.
“In 2014 my wife said to me, I'm gonna celebrate my 50th anniversary next year, and I'm not gonna celebrate it being married to a politician,” he explained for his step away from the RDBN. “Okay, so I took that to mean you better not run. Yeah, so I didn’t.”
Mark Fisher took over for two terms and then decided not to run again in 2022. After no one put their name in to run, Stoltenberg came back to the table.
“I don't do it because I want to be a politician,” he said. “I consider it my community service more than anything else. All right, looking after the people that live in the area, in the rural area.”
He said it is unfortunate that more people don’t want to or can’t get involved in local politics.
“It's a sign of the times, society has really changed. I'm 81 years old. I've seen a drastic change in society over my lifetime, and we've lost our sense of community, of local community, all right, because everybody's got a cell phone in their pocket. Some of us have got two. I think that people are so busy and it's a lot harder now.”
Stoltenberg was born in Pontiac, Michigan, spent a few years in Ontario and had plans to go to the General Motors Institute to become an automotive engineer, but felt called to join the US Navy. He did a couple of tours in Vietnam, met his wife between the two tours and they got married in April of 1965. He said when he was done serving in the navy, the world seemed different.
“I came back, people spit on me, called me baby killer, all kinds of stuff,” he explained. “Well, society had already started to deteriorate. Late 60s, early 70s, they were starting to have big riots and what have you, about ’73 there was a big gas crunch in the US, but we got to talking and we had decided we didn't want to raise the kids in the city.”
After a short move from San Diego to the outskirts of that city in 1974, Stoltenberg visited a family member near Houston, B.C. While he was there, he bought a quarter section south of Houston with a log cabin on it. He travelled back to the United States and told his wife and two small boys they were moving to Canada.
“We got moved in, and that was it. The kids loved it,” he said.
He spent his working years with a contracting company at sawmills in Houston and Smithers. When he started working in Smithers in 1989, they decided to move closer and bought a place on the river in Telkwa. They built a house there in 1994 and have been there ever since.
In 1990, Stoltenberg helped get rural fire protection and as part of that deal, he had to join the Telkwa Volunteer Fire Department. He said after he joined, no one wanted to become fire chief so he took on that role, which was a volunteer position at the time. He had formal firefighting training from his time in the military and put it to good use.
He had to quit that position when he decided to run for the Regional District in 2008.
Some of the things he is most proud of, is helping to get 911 service, allocating money for the soccer fields in Smithers and helping community halls in the rural areas continue to thrive. He said he also had a memorable time assisting residents on Ebenezer flats shortly after he joined the RDBN the first time around.
“We had a log ice jam on the river down that way. And so we had quite an emergency effort down there for a few days. We had evacuations,” he recalled.
“Because the river overflowed the bank at 10:30 at night, and so the middle of the night, I was down there with the fire department coordinating getting people out. We worked through the night. Got most of the people out, the ones we didn't get out that night, we did the next day. Everybody was safe. Then you have to deal with all the contaminated wells and everything down there was a mess.”
Stoltenberg isn’t sure if he will run again. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and wants to see where his health is before committing.
Since his diagnosis, he has been more involved with the Terry Fox Run. Last year, he got to cut the ribbon to start the run.
“We’ve been on the run before that, but I guess it became more meaningful," he said. It is something I fully support. You had to have lived through the Terry Fox days and watch the struggle that he had. So that's, I guess, that's why I feel so passionate about it.”
Stoltenberg said he is feeling good but isn’t out of the woods yet.
“My first oncologist said to me, I'll give you a 30 per cent chance of making three years,” he said. “So I'm way beyond that. The fact that I've never felt sorry for myself and I've never let it slow me down because of it. I just keep on trucking.”
Moving forward, he is going to keep busy with his work with the RDBN, celebrate his 60th wedding anniversary in April and remain passionate about his community.