Sarah MacDougall runs for council, looks to bring “different perspective”

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Experienced healthcare professional and non-profit organizer Sarah MacDougall is running for Fort St. John city council—a place where she intends to use her experience with non-profits, healthcare, and family to provide a unique perspective.

MacDougall held several roles at Northern Health—first as an environmental health officer and, later, as a team leader in the Fort St. John area. She also holds positions at three local non-profits: treasurer at Totem Preschool, vice president of the Gymnastics Association, and director of the North Peace Savings and Credit Union.

These experiences, she says, would shape the perspective she would provide in the debate and discussion as a council member.

“It shapes my viewpoint, or the lens that I view all issues with,” MacDougall explained. “So when it comes to a well-functioning city council, in my opinion, we need to have lots of people from various backgrounds.”

“I feel that my experience both volunteering in the community and professionally in that health professional role will bring a unique perspective to the table,” she continued.

Her knowledge and insider perspective on healthcare in the north is one of the ways that that perspective will show itself. Though healthcare as a whole is a provincial issue, a major problem MacDougall witnessed in her role as a team leader with Northern Health was recruitment and retention—something a city like Fort St. John is taking steps towards.

“Those are areas that I really see the city playing key roles in,” she said.  

Supporting non-profits and keeping the lines of communication open between the city and the organizations that serve within it, as well as encouraging volunteering, are also ways MacDougall could see her experience shaping her voice on council should she secure a seat.

“We need to be constantly engaging with the non-profits because we can think about what they need, but it’s even better if they can tell us what they need.”

Her perspective and experience is not limited to the professional and non-profit realm —MacDougall is also the mother of four young daughters.

Though questions of capability and time can arise when a woman with a family runs for public office, MacDougall knows this experience not only adds to her perspective but to her passion for the community that surrounds her family.

“I would actually say it makes me more effective [as a potential councillor] in that I have four vested interests,” she explained.

“I need to make this community better so that they love this community the way I do, so that they want to stay, so that they want to get careers that they can love and then live here and give back to the community themselves and raise their own families.”

After 15 years in Fort St. John, MacDougall is a more familiar figure than some other potential candidates for council after her run for a city council seat in 2021’s by-election. She lost the seat that year to current councillor Jim Lequiere but always intended to run again.

The municipal general election is October 15th, 2022. The nomination period for mayor and council seats is currently open and will be until September 9th.