More than a year removed from her time in office, Diane Therrien is enjoying a work-life balance that she never had during her time in public life.
Therrien hasn’t done many interviews since leaving the Mayor’s Chair, but she sat down with PTBOToday.ca recently to look back on her term.
While Therrien is proud of a lot that got accomplished in her four years leading the city, passing the new official plan really stands out.
The 2018-2022 council had its share of squabbles, as all councils do, but there were some high profile situations that crept up. Andrew Beamer, Lesley Parnell and Dean Pappas were all removed from various posts during the term for voting against key projects within their portfolios, and Henry Clarke was not asked to be First Deputy or Second Deputy Mayor. Therrien also acknowledged she had a rocky-at-times working relationship with City staff.
Not shying away from some of the tension, Therrien says if she could have a do over, she probably would handle the appointments differently.
What does life look like now? Therrien, who recently got married, says she loves her current role as a Senior Research Officer with CUPE on municipal issues.
While she wouldn’t totally rule out a return to the political world, Therrien says right now she’s totally content with her work and what she’s doing – “so we’ll just leave it at that”.
(Written by: Jordan Mercier)