Mayann Francis
Lieutenant Governor, Nova Scotia

Where were you born?
I was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Whitney Pier.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
I believe my first pick—as you know as a child you change many times—I believe for me I always wanted to be a schoolteacher.

Who inspired you in your life?
My parents. My parents believed very strongly in education, in having confidence in yourself, and always being the best that you could ever be. So they were very inspirational in terms of my outlook, and what I wanted to be as I became an older person.

Did you become a schoolteacher?
No, I did not. I was asked that question by a student at one time and I said that I wanted to be a schoolteacher but now I have a larger classroom…and that is the people of Nova Scotia.

What was the route to getting to where you are today?
Hard work, confidence in myself, the ability to always want to succeed, the knowledge that I could be whoever I wanted to be and also I have a very strong spiritual belief. My belief is in God and I put a lot of faith in that belief knowing that I was placed on this Earth for a purpose and that it was up to me to discover that purpose and once that purpose was discovered to then promote the purpose and the talents that have been given to me.

How did that discovery come about?
The discovery for me was always there because I grew up in a home where my father was a minister and I always believed that we all have a purpose on this Earth. It wasn’t difficult for me to reflect on…what is it that I was placed here to do? And throughout my life I always asked that question. And so when I was asked to be the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia it was a relatively easy decision to make because I viewed it as a call to service. And I felt as having this call to service, there is a duty to fulfill that service.

What is your greatest challenge?
I think the greatest challenge for anybody is to always recognize when there are challenges in front of you, learning how to deal with those challenges the best way that you can. And I always look at challenges as a way to strengthen you. Every challenge does not necessarily have to be a negative one. But what it can do for a person especially if you analyze that challenge is that it can give you strength, it can give you further insight, it can give you a strategic direction on how to manage those challenges. So I look at challenges sometimes as a way to strengthen and as another way to move forward.

Before you became lieutenant governor, what were you doing?
I was the director and CEO for the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.

Have you felt you’ve made a difference in people’s lives?
In many ways I feel that I have made a difference throughout my career. My career is a very interesting one and has always involved some sort of public service. I started off in private industry in the United States, but then I eventually ended up doing work in public sectors, and I was also the ombudsman for the province of Nova Scotia for three years at the same time that I was the director and CEO of the Human Rights Commission. And when I worked in Ontario I was assistant deputy minister with the Ontario Women’s Directorate and also I was assistant deputy minister in municipal affairs and housing. All of my employment when I look back over it, it was always dealing with the public, so I would like to think that all of those years, some 15-plus years, that I have made a difference in some way in people’s lives and in society. And that would be for the good obviously.

Do you have any dreams yet to be fulfilled in your life?
Yes. I still feel that there’s a journey to continue. And as long as I have my health, I would like to continue on the journey that would be again giving back. I feel that I’ve been blessed with a successful career and I feel very strongly of giving back what you have taken out. So there may be aspirations to look at international work. Public speaking, I love public speaking, so there might be something like that that I would look at. I’ve done some international work in my past, in Brazil and a little bit in Ghana, so you have a taste for this. There’s needs all over the world and when we look at the world now it’s so easy to be connected to faraway places through the internet, through travel. So there’s always that possibility of what you can do to help faraway lands and if there’s not faraway lands what else can you do in terms of Canada. So there are so many things that I’m interested in and that’s why I call it a journey. If I can fulfill some of those dreams that I still have, then I’ll be quite happy.