Fort William Councillor shares journey on balancing
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY — Fort William Councillor Michele Solomon highlighted the challenges of achieving balance as an Indigenous women politician during the PARO Centre For Women’s Enterprise Fireside Chat with Women in Politics on March 11. Solomon participated along with Thunder Bay Councillor Shelby Ch’ng and former Thunder Bay councillor Linda Rydholm in the virtual Zoom event to celebrate International Women’s Day, to share their journey in politics on how they balanced their personal, family and political lives.
“It’s something I’ve struggled with greatly in my life, trying to achieve balance,” Solomon says. “I think I can speak for most Indigenous women leaders in saying that politics for us can be very personal. The people I represent, there’s oftentimes not even a degree of separation. Many of the people I represent are my family members or they are my extended family and they are definitely people I’ve known in a personal way for all of my life living at Fort William First Nation.”
Solomon says her role as a councillor is not a full-time job.
“I’m not in an office from nine-to-five carrying out my political duties, and it is a full-time job,” Solomon says. “It doesn’t end at 5 o’clock or 8 o’clock or on the weekends. People know you and you know people and you don’t just turn off the phone. It’s challenging to bring balance to your life — is it achievable, I would say a lot of times for Indigenous women it is not achievable.”
Solomon says she has a full-time job in addition to her political role.
“And as a woman, of course I have responsibility to my children and my grandchildren,” Solomon says. “In my home, I have grandchildren that live there. Right now in this current situation that we find ourselves, I know many moms out there are dealing with their young people who are virtual learning and for myself, I have a grandchild that lives in my home that is in an online virtual learning environment so it’s very complex, I would say, for Indigenous women leaders to find balance.”
Solomon says she has been working at getting more active and having more balance in her life since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hit.
“I started snowshoeing this winter and I really love it,” Solomon says. “My daughter joined me so it was something I was able to enjoy with my daughter.”
Rydholm says she needed different coping skills during her 27 years of service as a city councillor and school board trustee.
“Yes, lifestyle balance is achievable and when it isn’t achievable, one should at least attempt to get there,” Rydholm says. “Sometimes, for example, when you are doing the budget or you’re in an election campaign or there is a really hot issue, you can’t pretend that everything is balanced. More of your energy, time and efforts go towards the politics but overall in those 27 years, I think I did quite well.”
Ch’ng says balance looks very different for her.
“For me, it’s not about balancing my external things going on in my life but using the external pieces to balance what’s going on internally,” Ch’ng says. “In the last two years, I’d probably say I’ve had some bigger breakthroughs with trying to be in the moment — I’ve quit drinking, I don’t eat meat. It sounds like I’m a very boring person on paper and I could very well be, but I’ve found that wanting to do more means I had to do less of something else.”