By Justine Kelsie

Advice by Rice: book on former City Councillor available

Mar 18, 2018 | 6:00 AM

A 76-page book of advice from former Councillor Helen Rice is available for purchase.

With almost 40 years served on council, Rice retired as a member after the most recent election in 2017. In order to commemorate the impact she has had on the community and local government, a collection of short stories and anecdotes were compiled by Jessica Sanderson.

Rice says Mayor Bill Given was concerned that once she retired, a lot of history would be lost.

“When I started to think back, I thought of my favourite memories and my favourite people. I guess what my favourite part is realizing that it has been approximately 14 councils I was on with nine people on each. There were only a maximum of two I didn’t like.”

Grande Prairie is one of a kind, according to Rice, and that is one thing she would like people to take away after reading the book.

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“Being on the board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, I realized how special Grande Prairie really is. I used to sit and listen in horror of stories of conflict within councils. We just never had that in Grande Prairie,” explained the former Councillor.

“We would disagree around that table. When the meeting was over, we would all get up and go out to have a drink or whatever. There was never that animosity here.”

She left some advice on dealing with “the press” with tidbits on times she had been hammered by reporters. There are also sections called Fate, Clothing, and Don’t Judge. Current Councillor Chris Thiessen made the latter section.

“When he was first elected, I thought ‘oh no, this guy with this big afro, big airhead’. It was a very short period of time when I realized how intelligent, how caring, and what an extremely special person Chris is. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He does an incredible amount of homework. He is one of the people I hope will be in my life forever.”

The publication was originally printed for the delegation ceremony when the Revolution Place Plaza was named after her, but with a few left over, a limited number of copies are for sale for $15 at the Grande Prairie Museum.