Nov 10
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Lesbian mom elected as school board trustee in Ottawa
Xtra – November 11, 2010
Lesbian mom elected as school board trustee: Donna Blackburn prepares for new role
By Noreen Fagan
Donna Blackburn is a confident woman. When Xtra spoke to her before the municipal elections, she was not shy about her chances of being elected onto the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). Her first words were, “I will be elected.” Blackburn was right. She won more than 50 percent of the votes in becoming school board trustee for Zone Three, the Barrhaven/Knoxdale-Merivale area. She beat her closest rival, Allan Halfper, by a 12-point spread.
The reality of winning has caught Blackburn in a bit of a whirlwind. “My emotions have run the gamut, from excitement to overwhelmed, to a little bit afraid,” says Blackburn. “There is going to be a learning curve, but mine won’t be as much as some others, in the sense that I have been following the board very closely. I am familiar with how meetings work because I have been to a lot of them, and I am familiar with how the committee works because I have sat on committees. So from that perspective, I am really quite comfortable.”
Read the rest here. (WARNING: This link takes you to the homosexual online paper, Xtra)