About Sheilah Restall
When were you born?
Between 1981 and 1996 (Millennial)
Tell our readers a bit about your professional life. What do you do for a living? If you're an incumbent candidate, what did you do before you entered politics?
In my career, I specialize in Digital Transformation with a focus on Lean Continuous Improvement. What that means is I work with the people who actually do the job to determine what the root cause issues are in a process, to then build solutions (be it digital or not) to address issues at their roots.
I thoroughly love what I do, as it allows me to work with people to not only make their jobs more enjoyable but also help their customers.
To complement this work, I have certifications in Lean Six Sigma, Project Management, Change Management, IT Architecture, and I am working towards completing my certification in Business Architecture.
What's the highest level of education you've attained?
Bachelor's degree
How long have you lived in the constituency? If you don't currently live there, what led you to run there instead of where you live?
Considering the McPhillips riding was just created in 2019, I have lived in the area much longer than that.
I have lived in the Garden City area almost my entire life, except for the few years I lived in the GTA after graduating from university.
I came back home to the McPhillips riding as it is truly my favourite place to be, and I didn’t want to start and raise my family in any other place. In total, I have lived in Garden City for 30+ years.
What is the biggest challenge facing your constituency, and how would you address it?
A lot of the issues I am hearing about, specifically for the constituency, are with regards to infrastructure. I would want to work with the municipalities to identify funding opportunities to help with the infrastructure deficit that our area currently faces.
If elected, what will be your first priority?
My first priority would be to work hard to make myself accessible. I want to not only continue to reach out to everyone in the area to continue to understand what is important to them, but I want them to have the ability to easily reach out to me to actively share with me. I want to make sure that the voice that I have is accurately showing what is important to all the people who live in the McPhillips riding.
On top of that, I would like to start working with people in different key areas (such as health care and education) to see how we can find out the root cause of problems, so we can begin to make plans on how to solve them.
I have spoken to many people within my riding who work in some of these key areas and have told them to make sure they reach out so we can determine how we can work together to start finding solutions and building solid plans.
Who are your role models in politics, and why?
Nellie McClung is one of my main role models. She worked hard to fight for what was the right thing, and through her hard work and the many women and men who worked with her, brought equality and opportunity to every Canadian woman. I admire and respect her perseverance in this, even when it was undoubtedly a difficult thing to do.
Tell us something about yourself that voters might find surprising.
My community work is something not everyone is aware of. I have founded a number of community initiatives over the years, including the Poppy Blanket Project, Warm Feet, The Great Winnipeg Bear Hunt, and Winnipeg One Neighbourhood. Community work is what I am passionate about, and that is why I am running for MLA. I want to do more for the community, and I hope that by being MLA, I will be able to do so.
This information, however, is not something I think people would necessarily find surprising. If people want to know something that isn’t typically what I would talk about: I am a geek.
I love building computers, watching sci-fi, anime, superhero shows and movies, reading books and comic books, playing video games, playing board games, and so much more. I don’t usually have time to do most of these things, but every now and then, when I get to relax, these are the things I do to relax.