Why I quit Trudeau’s youth council
EDMONTON • Sara Wheale is one of those people Justin Trudeau spoke about in Argentina. One of the people who have “social impacts” when they arrive in rural areas to work on construction sites.
“There are gender impacts when you bring construction workers into a rural area,” Trudeau told a panel at the G20. “There are social impacts because they’re mostly male construction workers.”
The prime minister’s comments kicked off a controversy among workers in Alberta’s oil industry and, on Tuesday, Wheale announced on Facebook that she had decided to resign from his youth council.
Wheale, 23, is a heavy equipment operator and heavy-haul truck driver. She’s also a local councillor in Brazeau County, southwest of Edmonton. She was appointed in 2017 to the youth council, a non-partisan group that exists to advise Trudeau and his government on issues facing young Canadians.
In her resignation letter to Trudeau, dated Dec. 5, she points out that she’s one of the few young women working in the oil industry.
“What I can tell you is they are not bad people! In fact, they are the first people I would call if I needed anything,” she wrote. “They are my friends and family. Many of them I am not related to; however, when you spend more time with the people you work with than your own family, they become your family.”
Wheale spoke to the National Post on Wednesday about why she quit.
Q Why did you resign?
A I am one of these construction workers that go into these rural communities. That’s my entire community. That’s kind of our world — we are one of those communities that do bring in people to work on our infrastructure projects, like pipelines and highways. So it was a matter of, how am I going to address this? And what am I going to be able to be comfortable with? What decision can I live with, ultimately? And that was the decision I had made. I did talk to some staff prior to submitting the letter, and it came down to that was the best way that I could support my community and be able to live with the decision.
Q Was this the last straw?
A Yes, there’s been many things — and I’ve been more than happy to have the conversation with the prime minister and other cabinet ministers as well — but this was one thing where, I am one of those people. I’ve sat around the table trying to advocate and give the firsthand experiences about it, trying to show the rest of the country that might not be as knowledgeable in it what it’s like. And I thought that, you know, I was doing a pretty good job at that and then this happened and I was quite taken back by it. I was a little bit heartbroken. I felt it just wasn’t appropriate and it lacked a lot of knowledge; it didn’t touch on the real experiences from the people. I was really disappointed by that. Q Do you think white collar politicians don’t understand many Canadians? A It would be nice if the white-collar world would be willing to understand us a little bit more and actually sit down and have a genuine conversation about what it’s like. Q Have you heard back from Trudeau? A I haven’t heard back from the prime minister directly.
Q Why did you decide to post your letter publicly? A I was getting a lot of people asking what I was planning on doing. It is a public council, we were publicly appointed to it, so I don’t feel like it’s something that the public should not be aware of. Q How has your family reacted? A They’re very supportive of me. My dad has his own oilfield construction company for about 30 years. He’s an oilfield consultant, so they’re very supportive of my decision and they understand why I did it, and they’re happy that I made this decision that I did.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.