Keynote Speaker
Richard “Dick” Cannings, M.P.
Dick Cannings is a Canadian biologist, author and politician. He was elected as the South Okanagan—West Kootenay Member of Parliament in the 2015 federal election for the New Democratic Party, and re-elected in 2019. Dick worked as a biologist specializing in birds, taught at the University of British Columbia for 17 years, wrote numerous books about birds and natural history, and was a member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada for 8 years. He is an alumnus of Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of British Columbia. If you own a pair of binoculars in British Columbia, chances are you know of Dick and the rest of the Cannings family who have contributed so much to our knowledge and enjoyment of natural history in this province.
