Cape Breton mayor looks back at 'four difficult years' as she prepares to leave office

Amanda McDougall-Merrill says she’s walking away from the mayor’s chair in Cape Breton after four difficult and challenging years, seeking to find a better balance with her family life.

McDougall-Merrill, the first woman elected mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, recently announced she won’t be running for re-election in the fall. As she told CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis in a candid interview Monday, social media and the major storms and struggles that crashed into the island influenced her decision to step down.

“It’s been four difficult years. We’ve had a number of states of local emergency, gone through negotiations with our unions, still working on coming out of COVID, a lot of challenges that definitely weren’t in my campaign brochure,” she said. “I really thought I was coming in more for policy leadership and the more nuts and bolts of what’s happening every day, but really the bulk of our time was spent just surviving.

“I came in from more of an academic perspective but it was very much being a nurturer and making sure when we weren’t being heard, yell louder.”

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McDougall Merrill, who was first elected as a councillor in 2016 before winning the race to be mayor in 2020, said she’s proud of the work she and her team accomplished, noting how storms like Fiona and other natural disasters forced her to find her voice as a leader.

“I’m proud of the way we were able to move through and recover,” she said. “I’m definitely stronger than I thought I was. Going through those events brings out the best and worst of us, and during Fiona I was terrified that my windows were going to blow in and I didn’t know I had it in me to put that aside.

“I’m so much more confident in my leadership because of those roles but that’s only because I’ve had my staff supporting me. We did it together and it’s pretty remarkable.”

McDougall-Merrill said the general uncivility seen on social media regarding politics contributed to her decision to not run in the upcoming election.

“(The campaign) is not something I want to go through again,” she said. “I don’t want to be focused on solely because of my gender. I remember there was a hashtag on social media called KnockedUpMandy during my mayoral campaign. You can’t unhear, you can’t unsee, you can’t unknow what you do know.

“Unfortunately social media has given people a platform where they don’t have to be held accountable. Four years in this chair has been pretty heavy.”

McDougall-Merrill said she hopes people continue to get into politics and she plans to remain vocal even as she enters a stage of her life.

“We need leaders to bring people together,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what role you’re in, you always have a voice and you deserve to be heard.”

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