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Cynthia Block expected attacks on her record as a city councilor as she bids to become Saskatoon’s first female mayor.

But she resented some comments at the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce town hall debate last week went too far.

“I have to say that some of these comments room (debate) were disappointing,” Block said in an interview this week.

“It’s the way some men talk to some female politicians that is meant to demean or belittle them, and it’s very sad that we continue to see that in this day and age.”

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Block declined to provide further details, but the mayoral candidate Cary Tarasoff spoke condescendingly to him in a way he did not to his fellow challengers Don Atchison And Gord Wyant.

Regardless, the former broadcast journalist and CTV anchor said she doesn’t “internalize” any of that, which is probably a good quality for a woman in a modern political sphere that can be implacably hostile.

With just over a week until next Wednesday’s election, a half-dozen volunteers were working on computers in Block’s downtown campaign office Monday afternoon.

Given the scale and sophistication of his campaign, some might be surprised that his campaign manager, Rebecca Cormack, is taking on this role for the first time. Block was drawn to Cormack because of her work as editor of the Nutana Community Association newsletter.

Both women live in the Nutana neighborhood and both grew up in rural Saskatchewan. The block was raised near Blackstrap, south of Saskatoon.

She is now trying to make history by becoming the city’s first female mayor, after a somewhat battered campaign. Block acknowledged that she was aware of some polls, but pointed out that the polls had already been shown to be wrong.

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She easily won her central district in 2020, but the question for her campaign is whether she can generate support in the suburbs, where center-right candidates like Atchison and Wyant are expected to have an advantage.

“I will say this… that in every part of the city, knocking on doors, we were received warmly, even on a very difficult day when we were knocking directly around. Fairhaven Hut” Block said.

This seems ironic, given that the Fairhaven Wellness Centre, operated by the Saskatoon Tribal Council, is a provincially funded facility located in a provincially owned building – and, as Block again pointed out, the city played no role in its location.

The former journalist spoke out about misinformation during debates organized by the Chamber and the North Saskatoon Business Association.

She said one of the biggest misconceptions that has emerged is that City Hall can close or move the Fairhaven shelter. Block said the problems surrounding The Lighthouse shelter downtown have been transferred to the Fairhaven area, where his son lives.

“We can’t solve homelessness alone,” Block said of City Hall. “We have the fire department and the police. We do not have jurisdiction over housing. We do not have jurisdiction over mental health and addictions.

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She described her eventual support for federal zoning changes to acquire $41 million from the Housing Acceleration Fund as the most difficult decision she has made on council. Block initially opposed the changes, but she said building more affordable housing could help solve the problem. homeless crisis.

One of the main goals of his campaign is to form a mayor’s task force on homelessness to bring together decision-makers. But she is pushing for more leadership from the federal level.

Block, who ran as a federal Liberal candidate in Saskatoon in 2015, revealed at her campaign launch in June that her husband died of brain cancer two years ago. One of her children encouraged her to retire. Block decided she wanted to run the city instead, including enduring a sometimes difficult campaign.

“In comparison, I’ve done some really hard things,” she said. “I mean, people can yell at me and talk bad about me. It’s OK. I always think that says more about them than it does about me.

Block, who turned 60 in July, would be one of Saskatoon’s oldest mayors, but he is younger than his main competitors. Bert Sears, who was 65 when elected in 1972, is the oldest mayor. Both Atchison and Wyant are older than Sears.

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“I’m ready for this job,” Block said. “I think without knowing it, I may have been practicing all my life.”

Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

ptank@postmedia.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK

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