Finding ways to bridge that gap in equality was one of the main themes of the Our Voice, Our Province: Empowering Saskatchewan Women conference held all day Saturday at the Moose Jaw Public Library.
While many of the panelists had plenty of experience in the male-dominated world of politics, Moose Jaw’s Deb Higgins has pretty much seen it all. After serving for more than a decade as the MLA for Moose Jaw Wakamow from 1999 to 2011, Deb Higgins was elected as the first female mayor of Moose Jaw in 2012.
She hosted her own talk, the History of Women in Our Province, and was impressed with the array of speakers and breadth of topics covering through the day.
“It’s quite a diverse group of women, both attending and speaking, so it’s to good to get a variety of viewpoints and get some encouragement out there for younger people to get involved and see the opportunities that are out there,” Higgins said after the nine-speaker Challenges and Barriers: Real Life Scenarios panel discussion.
“You have a group of women who have been involved in leadership roles or municipal and provincial politics, some for up to 20 years. So you’re getting good advice, like some of the challenges that are in front of you, and there are sessions this afternoon that will be even more helpful for anyone looking for an opportunity in the future.”
The project was put together by Moose Jaw city councillor Crystal Froese, who was unable to attend the event due to illness. The list of speakers and topics she was able to gather covered a wide-range of information: Spur Action Build Confidence – Ditch the Shame Game with SEIU union president Barb Cape; Impact That We Have * Making that Connection – Why We Do What We Do with RM of Weyburn reeve Carmen Sterling; Running A Campaign: Equal Voice with Equal Voice Saskatchewan chair Lindsay Brumwell and Equal Voice Prairie coordinator Paige Kezima; and How to Lead Like a Women With 1,000 Things to Do Today with Saskatoon city councillors Hilary Gough and Mairin Loewen.
Also on hand were Warman mayor Sheryl Spence, Yorkton city councillor Randy Goulden, Cowessess First Nation leader Lucy Pelletier and Lori Deets with the Wakamow Aboriginal Community Association.
“There’s urban, there’s rural, there’s larger cities, there’s smaller communities represented here,” Higgins said. “And we actually got a pretty good attendance from Saskatoon and Regina, south to Weyburn and around Moose Jaw. So that’s nice too, since it builds the opportunities to do this again in another year or so.”
For Higgins, the message she passed on was as straightforward as it was insightful.
“Number one, being as well prepared as you can be, but also having confidence and knowing that we’re all ordinary people no matter what role you’re in,” she said. “We all make mistakes, we all have good days and bad days and there are challenges you have to work through.
Anyone in that room is more than capable of stepping up and taking on many of the elected roles and leadership roles out there.
“And then, politics can be at all different levels. You can sit on boards and committees and make contributions that way, volunteer on many things. And then there are venues where you can take a more visible role.”
With the success of the event this time around, the potential is there for the conference to become an annual event.
“It’s definitely something that we’d like to see happen again,” Higgins said.
