To give you some insight, I was brand new to our community. We had lived in Marwayne for only eight months, I was 29 years old, and I was pregnant. That really was not the norm in rural Marwayne, Alberta, so when I ran, my intention was actually just to meet people in the community. I never intended to be elected.
There were barriers. I remember one of the first meetings I attended. A male councillor from another community actually told me, “You just sit down. I think what you meant to say was...”, and he corrected my statement. It was very polite of him, but I soon corrected him, to the best of my knowledge. There were barriers, and these were the types of barriers. As I said, I was 29 years old and new to the community. People said things like, “What do you know? You've never lived here. You didn't grow up here. You don't understand what's involved here,” but as I said, I never let them define me.
I was able to show people that I had a very unique point of view, and perhaps a refreshing point of view, because I didn't know the baggage and I didn't know the old family history names. None of that meant anything to me. All I knew was what I could see and the facts I could deal with. That's really what made me a strong, positive leader.