Susan Thompson opens up about time as Winnipeg mayor in new candid autobiography

Winnipeg's first and only female mayor Susan Thompson has broken a lot of ground in her life and is candidly opening up about how she did it in a new autobiography that launches Sunday.

In the book,Her Worship: Moments in History, Moments in Time,Thompson doesn't mince words about the battle she had as a woman when she arrived atcity hall.

From the moment she left a retail job to run for mayor, she said she had to fight against a male-dominated political culture.

In her book, she writes about official documents she was given to sign in 1992 that had "His Worship" instead of "Hisor Her Worship" printed on them.

'An old boys club'

Thompson said she was taken aback by the papers but wasn't surprised and knew from that point on she had a steep battle ahead of her.

"I went like this is not 1892 it's 1992 and it demonstrated a real attitude, a real culture, and I thought 'boy are things entrenched here,' " Thompson recalls.

Thompson said when she was sworn in there was only one femalesenior civil servant. The other 29 department heads were men as were the city councillors and the city's board of commissioners.

"It was an old boys club," she said.

Thompson said the male-dominated culture wasn't just a problem at city hall she she was regularly asked by the media who would be escorting her because she was divorced.

"I was framed in such a way, described in such a way, that was so not me," she said.

Thompson said it's unfortunate looking back on her time as mayor, seeing her biggest challenge was fighting to change attitude and perceptions.

When she came into office, the city had the highest property taxes in the country and was the murder capital of the country.

The Winnipeg Jets also left Winnipeg during her tenure as mayor.

"It was pretty dismal," she said.

'Man's campaign'

Thompson said she is glad she followed her campaign staff's advice anddidn't run a "man's campaign" and broke barriersin office.

"Sometimes in a male run campaign things get a little too aggressive and you're told 'take the gloves off' and you know 'get in there' and all that."

"You got to be a woman. You got to be comfortable in your own skin," she said.

"We needed some hard work done, sleeves needed to be rolled up."

Her Worship: Moments in History, Moments in Time,launches at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon atMcNallyRobinson in Winnipeg.