Building Bridges

Building Bridges: A Big City Mayor reflects on Leadership
by Donald J. Atchison
Published by Wood Dragon Books
Review by Michelle Shaw
$19.99 ISBN 9781990863745

“So, what’s it like to be the mayor?”

This is a question that Don Atchison gets asked a lot. He was Saskatoon’s Mayor for four consecutive terms (2003 to 2016) and, before that, served three terms as a City Councillor.

So, he wrote a book. As he says: “If you aspire to be a carpenter, a doctor, or a farmer, it’s not difficult to find information about the role…It’s much more difficult to find out what it would be like to be a city counsellor or mayor. As a result, many people run for public office without fully understanding what they’re getting into.”

But this is not just a book about leadership. It’s also a memoir detailing Atchison’s own journey from a young sport-loving boy from the prairies, his life as a businessman (his family owned a menswear store in Saskatoon) and his life in public office.

What shines throughout the book is his love for Saskatoon. Although he was at times a somewhat controversial figure, I don’t think anyone ever doubted his commitment to the city. Many people still remember him standing on the side of the road with his campaign placard during one of his numerous campaigns. And as he says: “I found myself flying to Ottawa frequently, in order to support funding requests for Saskatoon. If you’re from the Prairies and the person you’re speaking with is not, you sometimes have to remind them that Canada’s western border is not at the end of a runway at Pearson International.”

It was fascinating to hear Atchison’s unique perspective on a particular time in the life of the city. The book explores the thinking behind many of the developments that occurred or were started during his time in public office – some of which were fairly controversial at the time. Many are developments that are now firmly part of Saskatoon’s landscape, including the Remai Modern Art Museum, Nutrien Playland at Kinsmen Park, the Shaw Centre, the Sasktel Soccer Facility, River Landing, the Gordie Howe Bridge and the Chief Mistawasis Bridge. He was also in office during the development of many of Saskatoon’s newer neighbourhoods including the neighbourhoods of Willowgrove, Evergreen, Erindale, Arbour Creek, Rosewood, University Heights, Blairmore, Hampton Village and Holmwood (Brighton is part of this development).

In the book Atchison also encourages people to get involved in civic government and offers practical suggestions on how to go about it.

Building Bridges is full of interesting first-hand details and there are numerous quotes that made me stop and think, such as “we need to remember that people do not emigrate to countries; they emigrate to neighbourhoods.”

The book briefly mentions his 2024 campaign for mayor where he was defeated by Cynthia Block, the current mayor of Saskatoon. He says he doesn’t regret his decision to run and readily discusses the lessons he learned from the campaign.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM