Eastman Tourism stands behind new hire despite social media posts

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This article was published 08/09/2024 (328 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The new executive director for Eastman Tourism is working on a strategic plan that will draw from the previous plan not fully realized because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a worldwide event that she believes was a conspiracy.

Arlene Davidson was hired in July by the board of directors of the Eastern Manitoba Tourism Association (ETA). Davidson was working independently as a cognitive behaviourist, and before that was a reporter with the Lac du Bonnet Clipper.

Davidson said she had to leave the Clipper because she lost relationships with sources in government when she sent questions their way based on her beliefs around vaccines and the pandemic. As recently as this spring before her hiring at Eastman Tourism, Davidson posted and shared pro-conspiracy and controversial posts on topics as wide ranging as millions dying from the COVID vaccine, climate change, 5G wireless signals being from China, gun control, American illegal immigration being a ploy to earn illegal mail-in votes, the World Economic Forum controlling Canadian politicians to force a “great reset” and lower the world population to 500 million as she saw being proven in rune stones in Georgia, people from the Black Lives Matter movement possibly being paid by the federal government to instigate trouble at the freedom convoy in Ottawa, media cover-ups, transgender issues, and more.

“Anything that I wrote on social media came from my heart, and for care about people,” said Davidson, who focused on the pandemic when asked if her posts could affect how people approach Eastman Tourism.

She said as a journalist and with her medical background from her work in mental counselling, she felt compelled as a self-described scientist to question doctors and nurses who were not asking questions of the government’s motives themselves.

“What we’re given is not making any sense whatsoever. It had no rhyme or reason, it was absolutely ridiculous. I did a lot of research and found out a lot of information and thought why is the government withholding important information from people?

“So I felt it was my responsibility to share it. I wasn’t trying to convince anybody of anything; I just wanted them to have the information that the government was not giving them.

“I wouldn’t change anything about that,” said Davidson.

She and ETA board chair Angela Smook both do not think Davidson’s posts, which were still publicly posted on LinkedIn and Facebook when they were interviewed Tuesday, would affect business or tourist relationships as they work together on meeting business and municipal leaders, residents, and other groups to help formulate a strategic plan for Eastman Tourism.

Smook, who is also the president of the Association of Manitoba Museums, said Davidson’s posts on social media were her own personal posts.

“They’re not relevant to our strategy and inviting people to enjoy the eastern region of Manitoba,” said Smook.

She added that the board sets the direction, and Davidson as the non-profit’s only employee is tasked with implementing that. She called Davidson a “strong captain” who has great connections with the community.

Smook equated Davidson’s many public posts to a teacher needing to leave their personal opinions at the school door.

“But when you take on a role and your responsibilities are this, your role is to put forward your job. It really doesn’t have anything to do with your personal opinions,” said Smook.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society in a 2023 publication on online safety reads, “every year, teachers and principals are disciplined or have their contracts terminated because of poor online behaviour.” It recommends creating separate professional and personal accounts that have different public access settings.

“It’s not our business”

Smook called social media posts a line that should be drawn at all workplaces.

“It’s not our business. She’s not committing a crime is she? She’s speaking her opinion. We all have the freedom to speak our opinion. She doesn’t speak that opinion in her role as an executive director as Eastman Tourism,” said Smook.

Controversial conspiracy beliefs, even on areas that directly affect tourism like climate change or installing 5G towers in rural areas, will not affect relationships because there will always be a member of the board or a committee who can work with someone that has an issue, according to Smook.

“You’re never pleasing everybody,” she said.

“That’s exactly why you’re an organization. Where one person literally does not have a good relationship with someone, someone else does and they’re able to open the door and get things accomplished.”

Smook and Davidson said the focus is on attracting more people to eastern Manitoba.

“We have to handle things as they are. We interviewed and chose from the people that came forward. We had really good, quality candidates, and we chose the person we felt can actually move us forward in a similar way that Jenny (Dupas, executive director from 2014 to August 2023). Arlene has different strengths than Jen does.”

“I know we think about politics and all the things that comes with politics. It’s not that great either because sometimes you post something when you’re 16… I’m not sure that’s a great thing that we do and go back and look at people and say ‘Hey, look what you did!’” said Smook.

Post-COVID comeback planning

Davidson said she was considering retirement at 65 years old, but was encouraged by others who saw the Eastman Tourism opportunity. She said her experience at the Clipper helped her to get to know a large part of the region, and her experience as executive director of the Manitoba Science Academy in Pinawa from 2001-2010 is an asset.

The first thing she is working on is on the administrative side of things. A new strategic plan was made just as the COVID-19 pandemic made planning of any sort difficult. Davidson and Smook said they are looking at what can still be used from the old plan as they shape a new one. Smook said the federal government has focused more on rural and Indigenous tourism, and having more visitors outside of summer.

“And people want to connect to communities,” said Smook.

“That’s a direction tourism is going instead of mass tours, people want to go and meet people and experience their lives.”

They both stressed that getting input from the people who live in potential tourist areas needs to be a part of the process, as tourism is not always welcome if a community is not ready for it.

“I’ve seen a couple of situations where the great big, grandiose tourism ideas went ahead full tilt without having proper infrastructure available, and that’s disastrous, totally disastrous when all of a sudden you’ve got hundreds of people arriving in your community. They’ve got nowhere to park, there’s no bathroom facilities, there’s no restaurants. Those types of things create negative feelings towards tourism. And that’s something I want to totally avoid and to make sure that the people who live there, the residents who generously share the beauty and wonderful things around them where they live, I want to make sure that’s maintained for them as well, and not be totally disrupted by tourists that don’t have the same values or may not respect the environment or the people who live there,” said Davidson.

She said education for visitors can be important. Having recently visited Sprague Fest in August, Davidson told of how being from the country meant she knew to slow down and pull over more on gravel roads when approaching another vehicle.

“People from the city don’t realize that, they just fly right by you where you almost have to stop to avoid getting the splatter of gravel on you. These are things people from the city aren’t aware of because they don’t experience it, but little etiquette sometimes can make a big difference on how well an area will welcome tourists to the area,” said Davidson.

“We all have to work together to make it work.”

Smook agree, equating their strategizing with planning for a party. The boring part comes first so things can run smoothly and everyone can get together for a good experience.

She connected their work with any controversial or misinformed posts from the new executive director.

“I think we always have to look past the differences that we have and find what’s common, and find where can we work together for the good of communities … and in this case strong communities that offer great places to visit,” said Smook.

“That’s always the best way forward, is to focus on what we can do together.”