Honest talk from Peachland mayor
Peachland Mayor Cindy Fortin was one of three inspiring women speakers at the Peachland Community Centre Sunday afternoon as the Peachland Community Arts Council hosted an International Women’s Day High Tea. Fortin got deeply personal with the crowd of mostly women. When Fortin was six years old, her mother moved her and her siblings out of the family home while her father was on a fishing trip. “I had no idea,” she said. “I had been so happy up until then.” After a few weeks, their father found them. Over the next couple of years, Fortin and her two siblings were kidnapped back and forth between their parents. When she was 15, Fortin's mom was moving to a new place. Fortin didn’t want to give up school and her friends again, so she found an apartment to rent. She ended up leaving school to work and then met a man who turned out to be an alcoholic. Having a baby didn’t help the situation. Fortin went back to school as a single mother to become a practical nurse. She met her now former husband and they moved to Peachland. Now with three children, Fortin found shift work challenging, so she went into sales where she was harassed by some salesmen. “Back then you put up with it because if you told, you lost your job,” she said. Wanting to spend more time with her children, Fortin got into freelance writing and eventually became the editor of the Peachland View. She was fired a week after voicing her intention to run for Peachland council. Fortin said she never wanted gender to factor into her work, but she got a rude awakening as a council member. When the new fire rescue boat came in and was moored at the yacht club, council was invited on board and one councillor said, “Men in the front, women in the back.” Even as mayor, Fortin said not long ago somebody sitting in the gallery called her a bitch. “I kicked his butt right out of the chambers,” she said. She has also recently been told to shut up from a council member at a council meeting. “There is a double standard,” she said. “I hope I’ll be able to change that.” Fortin said women in government are underrepresented in most if not all countries worldwide. “In local government in Canada, women only occupy 18% of mayor positions and 28% of council seats. We have to work on that,” she said. Pam Rader, owner of Shift Power Yoga, told a harrowing story of having her alcoholic abusive husband holding a knife to her throat when she tried to escape with her son and later stories of coming to terms with her son’s heroin addiction. Her powerful message was that the real power was the ability to decide how to handle circumstances. Nikki Csek, CEO of Csek Creative, spoke about not being able to hook up a telephone line without her husband and seeing female tellers in banks being passed over for advancement in favour of men. Her message to women was to be courageous and support one another. “One person can make a huge difference in our communities and beyond,” she said. In an evening wine and cheese event, speakers included Judi Wallace, laughter yoga leader, Dr. Tavi Nicholson, owner of Okanagan Ability Centre, and Maxine DeHart, Kelowna city councillor.