WHEREAS Saskatoon wishes to be known as a great place to live, work, and play;

WHEREAS regardless of our views on civic policy and politics, we, the citizens of Saskatoon, recognize how much work His Worship Mayor Don Atchison (hereafter "Mayor Atchison," for brevity) puts in to his job of Mayor of Saskatoon, particularly in terms of attending or putting in appearances at community functions and events;

WHEREAS we, the people of Saskatoon, wish to sincerely and gratefully applaud these efforts and this work ethic from our mayor (a work ethic also apparent in Mayor Atchison's training for his recent Aboriginal Day marathon, an act which does not go unnoticed--thank you, Mayor Atchison, for being a role model for both physical activity and making bridges between our Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities);

WHEREAS, however, we believe work/life balance to be an essential part of every person's wellbeing;

WHEREAS we believe our mayor should set an example for the rest of our city in this regard;

WHEREAS in his official city biography, the Mayor says his life is "about two things: family and public service";

WHEREAS the morning of June 23rd, 2015, Mayor Atchison told Lisa Dutton of Global TV, "If I can't make it to my grandkids birthdays, or my wife's birthday and I've never made it to the opera, even though I love the opera, I'm not going to commit to the pride parade";

WHEREAS we feel strongly that Mayor Atchison has been a force for good in many ways in recognizing the diversity of our city, including his outreach to our various ethnic and cultural communities and City Hall's raising of the Transgender flag for the first time during his tenure, as well as the Métis and Treaty Six flags;

WHEREAS we recognize that part of Mayor Atchison's constituency consists of voters with what we might call more "traditional" views on gender and sexuality, often informed by deeply held religious beliefs;

WHEREAS we believe our Mayor's family, particularly his young grandchildren, should not be deprived of valuable time with their grandfather due to his increasingly unreasonable workload, his deep commitment to our city, and his (well-intentioned) sense of civic pride and duty;

AND WHEREAS we believe our Mayor deserves the time and space to meet all his family and community obligations, as well as leisure and cultural activities, such as he would like;

WE, THE PEOPLE OF SASKATOON, HEREBY PETITION:

MAYOR ATCHISON:

a) Please i) appoint an official deputy mayor, such that said deputy may attend events in your stead when necessary, and/or ii) ask your city councillors, on a more regular basis, to fulfill their duties as acting deputy mayor ad hoc, as is currently done when you are away, and permit them to read a statement from you, expressing your best wishes and perhaps an endearing note about why you are unable to attend, such as "grandchild's eighth birthday," or "finally got to take in the Saskatoon Opera."

b) Please make City Council and your Executive Assistant aware of such family, community, and leisure/cultural activities and when they are to occur, that they may make arrangements on your behalf.

Mayor Atchison, our city has grown very quickly (thanks in part to your leadership) and while we appreciate your commitment, we feel perhaps it is outgrowing your actual human ability to be present at all functions, despite your best efforts (as much as we admire this about you). We want our Mayor to be happy, healthy, and as contented and well-rested as possible.

CITY COUNCIL:

a) Please support Mayor Atchison's call for the appointment of a Deputy Mayor, should he choose to do so.

b) Please make yourselves available to the Mayor as acting Deputy Mayor when you feel he may need it; you may have to offer this to the Mayor, as his pride and famous work ethic may prevent him from asking you first. Of course, do this only when it is possible for you; in the event you, too, feel overwhelmed, please petition our growing city for more councillors.

THE EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE MAYOR OF SASKATOON:

Please ask the Mayor when he has upcoming family commitments or leisure or cultural activities he'd like to partake in, and prioritize them accordingly. You may have to draw this out of him, by asking, for example, "Hey, Mr. Mayor, any grandkids' birthdays coming up?" or "So, are there any movies you want to go see?"

THE PEOPLE OF SASKATOON:

When you see the Mayor out on the street, or attending your event, ask him how he's doing. Ask if he could use any help with anything. You may have to dig a little. See if he needs his lawn mowed, or if you can pick up a few groceries for him, or maybe he knows just the right gift for one of his grandchildren but he knows if his meeting goes late that afternoon (and it will) he won't be able to get to the right store in time. Ask if he wants a shoulder massage (he has been working out a lot lately; he may have some tension there). Above all, treat your mayor with compassion. Understand if he misses your event for a family obligation or Pride event. Send him a nice thank-you note, telling him you appreciated him just thinking of you. Regardless of your politics, our Mayor works hard and loves our city. Show him you respect that. (And see if you can return his empty pop bottles to Sarcan for him. Sometimes there's a line, and he's a busy guy.)

SASKATOON OPERA:

Please provide our Mayor with at least two, perhaps more (but whatever you feel is reasonable) complimentary tickets to your 2016 (31st Season!) production, so that he may enjoy the wonderful music, the excellent performances, the amazing programming you provide our city year after year. Hold them at the Box Office for him under his name, so that he has to come pick them up in person, so he can't give them away (we feel like he might try to be selflessly sneaky like that). Mr. Mayor: there are people from Saskatoon's gender-and-sexuality-diverse community who enjoy opera as well. Perhaps you could all go together?

Finally, Mr. Mayor, Your Worship (though we might feel more comfortable calling you "Atch" or "Don,"), please consider going to Pride next year. We would never presume that this is in part because you don't want to alienate some of your socially-conservative voter base, but we would also totally get it if it was. Luckily, Mr. Mayor, Pride is a festival with many, many events. You could take in literary readings at Gay Latté, or attend a free screening of a movie (like this year's screening of Mean Girls--who doesn't love Tina Fey?--and we know you've got a sense of humour. Maybe next year there could be a special screening of Slap Shot, to welcome you to Pride?). What I'm saying is, you could go to an event without massive media coverage, if you wanted. It would be a little disappointing, but some in Saskatoon's Pride community would likely appreciate even such a tiny step.(It's a community sadly famous for its ability to keep things "on the down-low," if that's what you really want, but that does go against the basic concept of Pride.)

Heck, even just stand on the sidewalk during Pride, on one of the street corners, dressed in one of your famous sharp suits, and wave at the parade going by. Maybe even bring your wife or your grandchildren.

Acknowledge that these, your citizens, of your city, of Saskatoon, exist, and that you think it's a good thing they no longer face the exact same level of police brutality, legal, social, financial, psychiatric and physical (injury) consequence they have in the past for who they are or who they like--or love. Acknowledge that you think it's a bad thing that many of them still face these barriers, these challenges, every day of their lives, that some are still killed, that some still kill themselves. No one is asking you to approve of anything from a religious standpoint. Simply acknowledge that these fellow citizens exist, that their lives and their struggles and their triumphs matter, as you have with so many other groups in our beautiful and diverse city. Be happy they're happy. Be a good neighbour. Be a good leader, a good mayor. We'd all sure appreciate it.

SIGNED,THE CITIZENS OF SASKATOON (AND OUR SUPPORTERS WHO ARE NOT FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO LIVE HERE YET)

(Images courtesy of the National Post/The Guardian. Fair use/non-profit. Use of these images for illustrative purposes does not mean endorsement or support. This petition is solely the opinion of its signatories.)