Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 28/00) - Pat McMahon has led an illustrious life in the North since she moved to Yellowknife with her husband Murray in the winter of 1968.

Pat McMahon

She has been a long-standing member of the Daughters of the Midnight Sun, a mother, a city councillor and mayor. On top of that, she has grown into a confirmed lifer, with no intention of living anywhere else but her adopted home.

"I have been here for 30 years," McMahon says from the Frame Lake home she and Murray built in 1972.

"That's more than half of my life and I expect to be here for the rest of my life. I'll probably continue to enjoy every minute of it."

McMahon first stepped out of a plane and into her new life Feb. 25, 1968. She came with Murray, who had just received employment as a base engineer for Northward Aviation.

It was -45 C that day and the air was dense with ice fog. The couple had made reservations at the Gold Range Hotel and climbed into a cab to take them to their temporary home.

"We came up to a building," McMahon remembers. "It looked like a good building and I thought it had to be the hotel.

"I said to the cabbie, 'That's a nice hotel' and he replied, 'Lady, that's the jail.'"

McMahon made friends quickly in her new home. She joined the prank-loving Daughters of the Midnight Sun her first summer here and sought out local women who shared her appreciation for the game of golf.

"I put in an ad to the newspaper looking for other women that wanted to golf and 40 women showed up."

Hooking a monster

In 1969 the McMahons built a cabin on the Ingraham Trail. It was the place where fishing stories would become commonplace, such as the one that didn't get away.

"I love to fish," McMahon says. "I got up (one day) at 5 a.m. to catch a breakfast fish.

"I had a nice little one on the line when I saw a loon and some baby loons floating around out front. There was a big swirl and a big fish dragged the loon underwater.

"Then about 30 seconds later, the loon came roaring out of the water with the fish right after it."

McMahon watched the adult loon frantically flap its way out of the water with death inches below it, the little chicks scattering for cover in the shallows. She knew a monster pike, hungry for a snack, was lurking nearby.

"I hauled the little fish that I had on up the shore, broke the line and ran up to the cabin to get Murray," McMahon recalls. "We got into our boat and paddled about 30 feet out.

"I casted once, casted a second time, and then I knew right away when it was on.

"After about 25 minutes Murray got it into the net and it immediately chomped its way through it but Murray twirled the net around and levered it into the boat."

A political career begins

As someone deeply involved with the community, it was only a matter of time before the call to service began to lure McMahon into municipal politics, which she took on in earnest beginning with the 1977 election campaign for alderman.

"I lost in '77 to Bob Olexin by 40 votes and then again in '78 by 10 or 15 votes," McMahon says. "Then in '79 I ran again and won. I managed to last in municipal politics for 15 years."

McMahon contends that her life in local politics had its ups and downs.

"It was really funny at times and terribly sad at others," McMahons says. "I found it incredibly rewarding, challenging, exciting, satisfying and I'm glad I did go into it.

In 1987, McMahon was elected as mayor with the largest majority ever in a Yellowknife local election. She was also the first woman to hold the post and would go on to carry it for three terms until she retired in 1994.

"I said at the very beginning that I would be there for three terms only because I believe that after that amount of time, you have to get out of it and refocus again," McMahon says.

"There is always that danger of losing that objectivity, a danger of losing that ability to listen to what people have to say."

Some of McMahon's highlights as mayor, which she considered vital to the city's growth, include the development of the Frame Lake Trail and recreational facilities like the arena, curling rink and community pool.

"People needed those facilities," McMahon says, "considering the length of winters here and the number of children."

Last year McMahon decided to once again take a dip into politics and ran for MLA in the Yellowknife South riding in 1999, but was narrowly edged out by opponent Brenden Bell. What is there to do, of course, but simply dust oneself off and move on.

No place like Yk for kids

McMahon contends that Yellowknife is an excellent place to raise children, as witnessed in the upbringing of her own two children, Shawn and Lorena.

"One of the wonderful things about growing up here is that it gives kids the opportunity to take part in exchanges, travel and make friends and learn about different cultures, which you can't always get in a bigger city."

Both of McMahon's children are now grown up and live relatively far from Yellowknife, which makes visits sometimes difficult.

Out of all the big moment's in McMahon's life, one of the biggest occurred last March 4 when Lorena tied the knot in Prince George, B.C., where she now lives with her husband, Dave. Shawn recently moved to Halifax.

After 30 years in Yellowknife, McMahon still feels that Yellowknife stands by itself when compared to other Canadian cities.

"I think that's what really is the heart of Yellowknife ... adaptability. To look and say that the glass is still half full."