From Milan to Main-a-Dieu
CBRM councillor and mayoral candidate Amanda McDougall explains her pathway to politics
EDITOR’S NOTE:
This is the second of six stories profiling the mayoral candidates in the upcoming CBRM municipal election. In this installment, District 8 councillor Amanda McDougall discusses her pathway to politics, the challenging of the status quo and her vision for unlocking the municipality’s vast potential.
GLACE BAY — Amanda McDougall insists she is not a career politician.
“In my own eyes I do not see myself as a politician,” said the 37-year-old CBRM councillor, who now calls both Main-aDieu and Glace Bay home.
“I see this as a job and I treat it as a job. I am just a person who lives in the community and has a lot of passion for making things as good as possible for my family, for my neighbours and for people I don’t know.”
McDougall, who is also the executive director of the non-profit ACAP Cape Breton organization, recently took time out from campaigning to meet at downtown Glace Bay’s Talo Café to talk about who she is and why she wants to be the next mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
Turns out that she unknowingly started down the pathway to the political arena in the northern Italian city of Milan, known as one of the world’s top centres for fashion, after graduating from Cape Breton University with a bachelor of arts degree.
But after three years, she was ready to come home.
“It was a big adjustment to go move from Milan to Main-a-Dieu – I was loving my life there, but I was missing home, I missed Cape Breton so much and I knew I was at a point in my life where I had to decide whether to continue that life or go home. I chose to come home,” said McDougall, who upon her return soon found a job at the Townhouse in Glace Bay where she worked on a seniors project.
“I loved it, I was doing things like hosting breakfast parties for seniors, and then I joined the Main-a-Dieu Community Development Association – I then realized that this is my calling because I love doing things with people and for them, and it just felt natural.
“And I found that I am good at it. I have had a lot of successes in my career to date. I think it is just an innate passion. I find gratification when I see that a decision we made positively impacted the community.”
One of those successes was the ultimate removal of the MV Miner, a derelict cargo ship that ran aground off Scaterie Island while being towed to Turkey in 2011. McDougall was one of the driving forces behind the push to have the vessel broken and removed from its resting place. The last piece was taken away in 2015.
“I think that was the turning point for me – I began to understand the various levels of government and how they impacted our communities here. I was so frustrated and so angry at various times that I thought ‘ okay, I’m going to do this’,” she said.
During that time, McDougall ran for CBRM council in 2012 but finished a distant third behind winner Kevin Saccary and runnerup Hugh Kennedy. She then was hired as ACAP Cape Breton’s education manager before moving onto the Immigration Pilot program at CBU.
She ran for council again in 2016. The result was a narrow victory over the incumbent Saccary.
“That was an incredible feeling when I realized these people ( voters) trust me to represent them – the other thing I remember that the number of votes I won by was the same as the number of people in the hall that night, that was crazy,” recalled McDougall, who admitted she was a bit green when she first took her seat in the council chamber along with fellow newcomers Kendra Coombes, Earlene MacMullin and Steve Gillespie.
“Kendra, Earlene and I talked a lot and helped each other navigate through the process and I must say that ( late councillor) Ray Paruch was the guy of guys, he was so helpful, he had such vast experience and he was an amazing source of education, that he helped prepare us and taught us how to listen and to be strategic, I miss him very much.”
Fast forward four years and McDougall is now a candidate for mayor. She has two jobs, a partner, a stepson and is expecting her first child in December. And she says she’s ready to take on the challenges of being mayor of Nova Scotia’s second- largest municipality despite still hearing suggestions that a pregnant woman or new mother shouldn’t be mayor.
“It’s okay, but I obviously disagree,” said McDougall, who has gained a reputation not only as a proponent of increased public engagement and consultation but as a thorn in the side of Mayor Cecil Clarke.
“I may not be what people would expect as a candidate for mayor but that’s good, it’s something different, it’s challenging the status quo, it’s having conversations about things such as whether a pregnant woman can take office. If we continue on without challenging that status quo and without having these conversations then nothing will change.