Mayor Anna Allen 

When we were discussing our first empowered women for our website, we instantly knew it had to be Windsor Nova Scotia’s Mayor Anna Allen. After we both had the pleasure of speaking with her and husband, David, at a local art show, we both were impresses by her energy and knew right away that this was an empowered woman.

We had the honour of sitting down with the Mayor on a beautiful summer morning and asked her to share some history about herself and how she became Mayor of Windsor. She was born in Digby then later moved to Hants County. When married she and her husband raised three children in Windsor. She was able to balance the role of motherhood as well as supporting their plumbing and heating business. During this time she was a member of the Hants School Board from 1985-1991. She went on to serve in municipal government as an elected town council from 1991-2000 along with extensive volunteer work within her community. In 2000 she was elected mayor of Windsor with 51% of the votes and has been a key figure in the planning and development for the town of Windsor.

Mayor Anna Allen conveyed to us the importance of her family and their support on her journey. When asked about what it meant to her to be a empowered women she felt strongly that empowerment comes from within, women need to look inward for sincerity. The Mayor gains majority of her inspiration from other women on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Inspiration could come from a friend or a complete stranger. 

One of her many projects is very much about empowering women. It is called “Women in Local Government”. It’s about bringing more women into the local political arena. In their booklet they note that women make up 52% of Nova Scotia’s population, only 21% of elected representatives (the third lowest in Canada), only 16% of Chief Administrative Officers and only 7% of mayors and wardens.

Mayor Anna Allen writes in the highlights report “Municipal governments make decisions that affect people’s daily lives. Without the input of women in all their diversity- as politicians, board members, staff and citizens- municipal leaders have too little information about how their decisions affect the people they serve.”

She also makes a very valid point that women are involved in their communities, but for a variety of reasons they are not involved in municipal decision making process.

During our meeting we could easily tell how passionate she was about her project, and we captivated by her enthusiasm and energy. She feels strongly that having women in municipal government will bring a unique balance to the political table.

As someone who has grown up in Windsor and a newcomer to the community, we were impressed by her sincerity and passion, not only for her projects also for the desire and commitment for her community as well as women in other communities globally. As she has had the opportunity to enlighten other women in Guyana South America about having a voice in their government. She is definitely a positive role model for women of all ages, not only in government but in any community.

If you would like to know more about Mayor Anna Allen’s project you may contact her at aallen@town.windsor.ns.ca.