Looking on the bright side. P.A. mayor Greg Dionne will serve a third consecutive term. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

local politics

Political and physical survival: Mayor Greg Dionne reflects on the past year

Nov 14, 2020 | 7:30 AM

Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne didn’t tell several of his family members he needed a quadruple bypass until weeks after the procedure was already complete.

He didn’t want them to worry and he wanted to get back to work as soon as possible. He was instructed to sleep as much as he could during the first two weeks after the surgery.

“Well if everyone knows you’re there and your sisters are there, and your visitors are there, you’re not sleeping,” Dionne told paNOW.

He was back at work five weeks after the procedure – his doctor had wanted six – and said it was hard to be away from City Hall for that long.

“I did have a rough year and I did keep everything secret,” said Dionne explaining aside from the quadruple bypass at the end of August 2019, he had eye surgery this spring for cataracts and to remove forty-year-old scar tissue, which was causing color blindness. He previously had treatment and recovered from prostate cancer.

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“I’m 100 per cent healthy today,” he said, adding that since it takes a year to fully recover from a quadruple bypass he’s regained the ability to shovel snow “at the right time.”

Dionne said he received an outpouring of support from those who did know about his heart surgery, sending food at an “incredible pace” while he was on bed rest. He thanked the community for making him feel warm during that period.

Positive mandate

Aside from good doctors, he credits his successful healing to his positivity, an approach he says he also tries to bring to his politics. During an election campaign that had many flashpoints, he said his positive attitude helped him focus on delivering his message to voters.

“One thing my friends and family don’t do around me – I don’t allow it, I absolutely don’t allow it – you come to my house, no gossiping, no talking about other people and no negativity.”

“My whole life is positive,” he said. “I came out of the shopping center industry, where people would say, ‘oh, aren’t you depressed? You lost that space?’ No, I’m positive and excited because it gave us an opportunity to change. And that’s something different.

“We can all sit at home and cry and whine and be negative, or we can find the positive in life and move on… I do believe you heal better when you’re positive.”

Energized by stress

Asked if it was difficult to manage the stresses of being Mayor while also dealing with health issues, Dionne explained his duties as leader of the city actually energized him. He did as many events as he could, but added the City Manager and other staff at city hall made sure he got an afternoon nap in.

Ultimately, he found it difficult to stay away from work.

“I am a worker and a survivor. And that’s just my ethics. And I’m proud of it,” he said. “You know, people say, ‘well, you’re 68, you should slow down.’ I say, ‘Oh, god, no, I got another 20 years. Look out now.’”

Dionne acknowledged his self-reliance and drive to get things done can sometimes come at the expense of prompt communication, which is something he wants to continue to improve on as a leader.

“I was 30 years in private industry, where I was my own commander in chief. So you would walk in and say, ‘can I do this?’ [and I’d say] ‘Yes,”’ he explained. “Where as today I have to say, ‘Okay, I’ll bring the recommendation to Council and I need five votes.’ So, it’s a learning curve for me because I was 30 years of saying, ‘yes’. Where now I’ll say, ‘yes, you have my vote.’”

Longevity and history

It was Dionne’s career in private industry as a shopping centre manager that originally brought him to P.A. When he first moved to Prince Albert around three decades ago to manage the Gateway Mall, he saw the city as a stepping-stone.

“I made them sign a contract that I would only have to stay here two years,” he explained, adding that the deal meant after his stint in P.A. he would be given the coveted position of manager of Orchard Park Shopping Centre in Kelowna.

“That’s the shopping centre everybody wants to manage,” he said. “I was to stay here until the guy retired in Kelowna… that’s the mall that’s always full, even today with COVID it has a waiting list. It’s the mall to go to.”

Three and half years after he’d moved to Prince Albert, Dionne got the call that the position had finally opened up in Kelowna.

“They were shocked, I said ‘no,’” he laughed.

In the time he’d spent waiting to move to Kelowna he’d fallen in love with Prince Albert.

“I fell in love with the people, the culture because we’re very diverse when it comes to culture,” Dionne said. “I fell in love with Candle Lake and fishing. I fell in love with the days we’d spend nature walking on the trails. I just fell in love with the area and city.”

Having just been elected to a third term, Dionne explained next year, he will have sat in the Mayor’s chair longer than anyone else in Prince Albert’s history.

“To me that will be my legacy.” he said. “You know people say ‘don’t you want something named after you?’ No, I never ran for that reason. I ran to make P.A. a better place. And if you ask me today, I do believe I’ve done that.”

Given the medical adversity he’s overcame this year, Dionne appears to be a man with the heart and the vision to keep going.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom