Take it from Rebecca Alty — the apple doesn’t fall far from her family tree.
Yellowknife’s mayor explained her two sisters, like her, are public servants: one is a teacher, the other a federal employee.
“We grew up with that culture,” she Alty, who credited her mother, Vivian Hansen, for it.
On International Women’s Day, Alty reflected on some of the inspiring women and moments that have helped shape her career. Top of that list is her mother, who also works in the federal public service.
Alty described her as a powerful force, saying that seeing her mom organize and contribute to her community was a huge inspiration.
“For me, it was how she just steps up and says ‘yes’ to helping out,” she said. “I probably have a similar curiosity — desire to help, say ‘yes’ even before you know what you’re really jumping into, but working hard once you’re in there.”
But when it came to joining the political sphere, Alty explained she got her kicks from the soccer pitch, having been a past coach at multiple Arctic Winter Games.
“I feel like soccer gave me the start of a lot of leadership with the public speaking and organizing,” she said.
She added her background in communications also lent a helping hand in her career.
But what gave her that needed push, she explained, was a lack of visibility, especially when it came to women in politics.
“It was in 2012 that a friend asked me to be a campaign manager for the upcoming municipal election,” said Alty, who agreed, despite not knowing what a campaign manager did.
Alty said she went to a campaign school for women, hosted by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
“It was at that session that the facilitator went around and was like ‘Who’s running?’ and there were about 10 of us. We were all working to help somebody but none of us were running and she was like ‘Well, if no women run, then we’re never going to see more female leaders’,” she said.
Alty added that she wasn’t seeing enough people she’d want to vote for, so she put her own name forward.
And so commenced a 12-year career in politics so far.
Alty said she’s lived in Yellowknife her whole life, barring a brief stint in Alberta where she attended the University of Calgary.
It’s been quite the roller coaster so far, she explained, highlighting the wildfires last summer and a global pandemic as two noteworthy challenges.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be like ‘Yes, I know everything about this role’,” she said. “Every year I have to learn something new and have to work on a different skill. I don’t think I’ll ever be done learning.”
The mayor’s chair can be a hot seat so to cool down, Alty said she likes her exercise.
“I like to go for my daily walks, whether it’s with friends or with a podcast, but that’s my release at the end of the day,” Alty said. Some of her favorite podcasts include Hidden Brain, The Happiness Lab and The Globe and Mail.
It takes a whole community to keep someone healthy and going, Alty explained, noting how she’s fortunate for the men and women in her life who have supported her over the past decade or so.
“I’ve been blessed with a good community,” she said.
For this International Women’s Day, she said she’s looking for more of that for others.
“How can we lift each other up? How can we have more grace and understanding with each other, recognizing that we’re all humans?,” she said.
Alty pointed out the mayor of Gatineau, Quebec recently resigning, along with the near 10 per cent of Quebec officials leaving office as a sign of needing more support.
“It’s important to have accountability, but the attacks just means we’re not going to get more good people running for these roles, so watch out for that vicious cycle you could be creating,” she said.
Alty said a little grace can go a long way, and helping one another could mean that more good people would come in and want to help out, especially for smaller cities like Yellowknife.
Apart from that, getting women into politics is also a matter of recognizing how transferable their skills are, even if it comes from organizing a soccer team to being on an advisory committee.
“We need more and different voices at the table,” Alty said. “I don’t know any woman in elected office that wouldn’t take some time to chat with somebody who was interested and talk about steps that would help in their career path.”
Alty has plenty of meetings on her plate for now, but as for the future of Yellowknife, she’s hoping to see her community keep up its resilience.
Because even here, the smallest ideas can snowball into much bigger things.
Pun intended.
“I think of the Snow Castle that started as a dad doing a fort for a kid, and now it’s one of our main tourist attractions,” said Alty. “I just hope that (sense of) community, that vibrancy, continues.”
—By Devon Tredinnick