Yarmouth County councillor encourages other women to rise to the challenge

“It’s because it’s hard. It’s hard,” she repeated. “It’s not for the faint of heart. Politics is not that compatible with family life and typically I believe women are the guardians of family life.”

Dares, who has been a Town of Yarmouth councillor for 16 years describes the work as requiring a lot of time, but that it’s not without its reward.

“I love having input into the direction the town is going,” she said.

When she was elected, Mykal her youngest child of three was five-years-old. Dares admits she was scared and that because she is not by nature a public person her new role was not a comfortable ‘skin’ for her.

“I’m a soldier, I’m happy to just plod along and work towards the goal,” she said.

There were the times she had to bring Mykal to town meetings with her or leave to pick her up from nursery school.

“At the time I was a little flushed about it, not embarrassed, but apologetic,” she said.

She seems almost proud of the fact now, happy that she was (and is) able to wear both hats capably – that of a councillor and a mother.

Dares’ background of environmental work provided solid footing for community representation. She was a founding chairperson for Citizens for Recycling in 1990.

She says there have been times as a councillor that it’s been very difficult and emotional, with personality conflicts.

“After raising three kids, when somebody yells at me I tend to yell back. That’s not always good decorum… but I never start the yelling,” she laughs.

She and other fledgling councillors were advised by the mayor at the time to sit and observe and not be overly verbal the first year.

She viewed it as good advice and has become much more comfortable in her position.

“I now know all kinds of stuff about water and sewer and other issues that people take for granted,” she said.

She’d like to see more women take up municipal positions to provide an evenly balanced perspective.

“Women bring new ideas to the table for discussion, new priorities, new perspectives. It’s just not acceptable to have men making all the decisions for us. We approach things differently,” she said.