From Hockey Goalie To Long-Serving Mayor with Donald J Atchison (Canada)

A man walks into civic life after four years of professional hockey and ends up becoming the longest-serving mayor in Saskatoon’s history. Donald J. Atchison joins us to unpack what that journey taught him about leadership under pressure, why “success” has to include employees and neighbours, and how the basics of city life still shape trust: safety, security, transport, affordable housing, and a sense of hope.

We also dig into the personal stories that don’t make the highlight reel. Donald shares a direct death threat at a public Remembrance Day gathering, what happened next with police, and how that kind of risk changes the way you move through crowds forever. From there we talk about faith in public life, including Saskatoon’s Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, the comfort community rituals can bring, and why public leadership often attracts strong reactions from every side.

Donald explains why he wrote his book, Building Bridges, to set the record straight about his time in office and to capture the city’s story in his own voice. We explore his belief in a practical partnership between government and the private sector, how Saskatoon chased growth, and why he prefers the word “newcomers” when talking about immigration and belonging, especially when highly skilled people are forced to start again because credentials go unrecognised.

If you care about civic politics, leadership lessons, public safety, and building stronger communities, you’ll get a lot from this conversation. Subscribe, share this with someone who cares about local leadership, and leave us a review with the one trait you think every mayor needs.

Music, lyrics, guitar and singing by Dr Ariel Rosita King

Teach me to live one day at a time
with courage love and a sense of pride.
Giving me the ability to love and accept myself
so I can go and give it to someone else.
Teach me to live one day at a time.....

Transcript

Dr Ariel R King 0:33

Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Business of Life with Dr. King. Today we have a very special guest, Mr. Donald J. Atchison. Welcome, sir.

Donald J. Atchinson 0:43

Well, glad to be here with you, Dr. King. It's really exciting, and I was so excited when I met you over in Philadelphia at the World Trade Conference, the forum that we held on. And you had a wonderful presentation for all of us as well.

Dr Ariel R King 0:59

Thank you. You're so kind. Thank you. Thank you. Would you please tell our audience a bit about yourself and our subject for today?

Donald J. Atchinson 1:06

Well, that'll take up the whole show.

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Donald J. Atchinson 1:10

But I was born and raised. That's a great.

Dr Ariel R King 1:12

That's what we want.

Donald J. Atchinson 1:15

Well, I was born and raised in Saskatoon. And from there, I played uh hockey. I went on to have a professional career in hockey for four years. And then from there I came back, was in the store. We had a mentor store. My dad was in the clothing business for over 50 years. And I got into politics. And I went into the store one day and told my dad, Dad, I think I'm going to get into civic politics. And he said, and he used this rather strong language,

From Hockey To Civic Politics

Donald J. Atchinson 1:47

so I'll tone it down for audience. Blankety blank. Why would you do that?

Dr Ariel R King 1:52

Blankety blank. I love it.

Donald J. Atchinson 1:57

He says, you know, business and politics aren't meant to go together. So I said, Yeah, maybe so, but I think I'd like to do this. So I went down and told my mom. And she said to me, it's about time. She says, You should have done this many years ago. So consequently, my wife, Mardell, I want you to know, most wonderful person in the world. She has allowed me to do everything and anything I've ever wanted to do along the way, and has never been negative about it at all, always so supportive. And so I ran for uh city council, and I was fortunate enough to become a city counselor. And I was there for nine years. And as I was sitting there, I said, Well, you know, if I was the mayor, I'd do this, or if I was mayor, I'd do that. Never dreaming that I would ever become a mayor. And at the end of my ninth year as a city councilor, I didn't like the direction the city of Saster was going in. And you don't get to put an asterisk beside your name saying that Don Atchison didn't vote for this, or Don Atcheson didn't like that. The question is, it's council that did it, and you all get painted with the same brush or tarred and feathered. So consequently, I said, Well, I'm going to run for mayor, and if I win, I'll be the mayor, and if I'm not, I'll be out of civic politics, and my name won't be attached to it any longer. Well, I had the good fortunes of being elected and became the longest serving mayor in the city's history. I was for 13 years. And I never thought of myself as a politician. I only thought of myself as someone walking by the front of City Hall and that being asked one day, would you like to be the mayor? And so I went in and I became the mayor. Um and I I still don't think of myself as a politician at all.

Dr Ariel R King 3:45

That's fabulous. That's absolutely fabulous.

Donald J. Atchinson 3:49

I just want to be, I just wanted to give the people what they needed. They needed safety, security, and their community. They needed to have good, clean, attainable, affordable housing to live in. They needed great transportation. They wanted to be able to raise their families and be able to take them on a holiday once a year. They wanted to give their families hope and opportunity that they too could have a better quality of life. And so that's what I premised my entire time as being a mayor on was just helping others along the way.

A Mayor Focused On Everyday Needs

Donald J. Atchinson 4:26

And after my 13 years, I got involved with World Trade Centers. And I've been consulting for other companies as well along the way, trying to help them become more successful. And success means not only for the owner, but for all the employees and all the people that live in the community as a whole. Because we have to think bigger than just ourselves. We have to think of everyone else. So that's always been my philosophy. So one day I thought, well, maybe I should write a book. And so consequently, I wrote a book called Building Bridges. I don't know if you can see this at all or not, but that was the book that I oh yeah, we can see that.

Dr Ariel R King 5:08

That's wonderful. Thank you for showing bridges.

Donald J. Atchinson 5:11

And I I told my told my Mardell that I was going to write this book. And she never said anything at all. And away I went on my merry way, wrote the book. And after I had it published, she said to me, I just never thought that that would happen. But she always encouraged me all the time, never any negative

Why He Wrote Building Bridges

Donald J. Atchinson 5:30

feelings at all. And so consequently, it ended up becoming a uh bestseller on Amazon Canada, top 15 in May and June of last year for leadership. That's fabulous. That's absolutely fine. I was not surprised about all of that.

Dr Ariel R King 5:47

I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. Could you please tell us more about what's in the book and the reason that you decided to write the book?

Donald J. Atchinson 5:55

Sure. Well, first of all, I'm the first mayor that has ever written a book about the city themselves. When I was the mayor, the media did not like me at all. They were very anti-Don Acheson. But I the people in the community are very pro-Don Acheson. And they had a difficult time with that. And the one writer wrote a lot of things that were not truthful at all. And I thought I should try to set the record straight on what really transpired. So the book starts off with leadership in the sense of Don Acheson being in Saskatoon, playing hockey, and consequently playing hockey. I was a goaltender. So in in hockey, the goaltender loses games. They don't usually get credited with winning games. And then I was a referee and I was a coach, always second guest. And having been in the clothing industry, you always hear people's concerns. So you learn to listen to people what they actually had to say. So that's all part of the book. And then I wrote in there also about playing professional hockey and how exciting it was. And when I played, I can still remember us, we would get paid before we left for our games on the road per diem. And I would turn to the guys and I'd say, I can't believe they actually pay us to play. And they'd say, You goaltenders are all the same, you're all crazy. But I've been very fortunate. I never have had a job in my life. I've worked, but I've never had to really, I've always been able to do things that I've always wanted to do. So I played hockey. We won a championship, ended up in the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame.

Dr Ariel R King 7:48

Wow. Pardon me. Wait, hold on. Let's go back. Which championship did you win? And just tell us a little more about that.

Donald J. Atchinson 7:54

We won in this place called Fort Wayne, Indiana. We won the International Hockey League Championship that year. It was my first year in the league. I wasn't destined to play goal in the playoffs. My partner was. But in the very first game, there was a brawl where all both teams came off the benches, and everyone was fighting with the other person. And my partner hit the other goaltender in the face with his mask on and broke his thumb. So

The Turner Cup Hall Of Fame Surprise

Donald J. Atchinson 8:25

consequently, I ended up playing all the hockey games after that. And I was very fortunate. I think I won 11 games and I lost one game during that time, had a goals against average under two and everything else. So it was really, for me, it was just hockey was what I loved doing, and that's what I did. So the one day I was in Toronto at the Hockey Hall of Fame, and I was with our premier, Premier Wall of Saskatchewan. And I said to him, you know, a guy like me should really be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. I just can't believe I'm not here yet. And I walked around the corner, and the trophy we had won was called the Turner Cup. And there the trophy was in the display cabinet. And I looked to see if my name was on there. And sure enough, my name Don Atcheson was on there as part of the winning team. So I said, Mr. Premier, you need to come over and have a look at this. I'm in the Hockey Hall of Fame. And so consequently, that's how that's how I got into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Dr Ariel R King 9:30

That's fabulous.

Donald J. Atchinson 9:32

So I played hockey and really enjoyed it. But the question becomes, what do you do when you're finished playing hockey? When I played, they weren't paying people millions and millions of dollars. But I was making a salary far in excess of what other people would make back in Saskatoon. But it's at some time that comes to an end. And so the question becomes, what would I do? So I went back into the clothing industry with our family and spent many years at that with them. And then from there, that broached into my political career. And the political career was really quite enjoyable. I always enjoyed it. They'd say our family

What Comes After Pro Sport

Donald J. Atchinson 10:17

enjoys meeting people. We're social people. And so consequently, I would do functions on an ongoing basis all the time. Some years I would get close to doing a thousand functions in a year, so that would be about three functions a day.

Dr Ariel R King 10:33

My goodness.

Donald J. Atchinson 10:54

That he really cares about me. I did. And I wanted people to have the best. So I ended up becoming the counselor. And then from the mayor, I still remember, and it's in the book here, November the 11th. That's Remembrance Day in Canada. And we are at the place called the Annavets. And the Annavets is the Army Navy Veterans Building. And my wife, Bardell, was with me. And we were sitting there. And I was having a, I don't drink, so I was drinking a Coca-Cola. I'm going around and shaking everyone's hands. And this fellow came up to me and said to me, I'm going to kill you. You're not going to see me when it happens. He says, I'm an expert marksman and I can kill you from a mile away.

When Public Service Gets Dangerous

Donald J. Atchinson 11:46

And I looked at the fellow.

Dr Ariel R King 11:48

I did. I wasn't ready for that.

Donald J. Atchinson 11:51

And so I looked at his uniform and he had the insignia of a marksman. And so I went back to the table and said, Brennell, we're leaving. She says, I'm enjoying myself. And I said, We're leaving. She says, and then she's just the most wonderful person. So she said, okay, so away we went, got in the car. She sat down, and then I told her exactly what had transpired. And so we phoned the police immediately, uh, the deputy chief, Deputy Dan Wicks, and instructed us immediately to get to a restaurant. And he told us which one to go to that was in an open place so that he thought that we could be safe there. So we went there, met with him. And after that, they did, in fact, follow the fellow for a long time to make sure that nothing did happen untowards myself or anyone else. But in our office there, we would get death threats on an ongoing basis all the time. To this day, I'm very leery when I'm out. I always try to make sure I have my back to a wall. I'm always analyzing crowds to this day all the time, because one never knows what could happen.

Dr Ariel R King 13:02

How could you not? But can I ask? It's it seems so random. I mean, how is it that who was this person and why did they decide that you know you didn't have a right to live? I mean, was it someone from the quote-unquote opposition party? Or I I really don't understand. It's quite bizarre.

Donald J. Atchinson 13:19

I I I believe, I guess, in my beliefs. And my beliefs are I believe in God. I believe that everyone has to have a supreme being to believe in, and that if you don't have something to believe in, you have nothing. I don't know how you get through life, through difficulties, through challenges, without believing in something. And so I was the type of person that never let go of something. If I believed that something had to be done, then we'd move in that direction. And so

Faith In Leadership And Public Life

Donald J. Atchinson 13:56

we always have. We had what in Saskatoon, we had what's called the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast. And the mayor's prayer breakfast was the second largest prayer breakfast in North America. Only the one in Washington, D.C. was larger than ours.

Dr Ariel R King 14:12

Yeah.

Donald J. Atchinson 14:12

And it was, I have to tell you, absolutely phenomenal. Fellow thing with Don Funk and his wife Eleanor did all the work behind the scenes on it. And for example, one year in the war in Afghanistan and that where we were losing some of our soldiers, we had a prayer breakfast for families from the military. Another year we had a breakfast.

Dr Ariel R King 14:38

So important, you know. I think it's comforting that to know that somebody cares and somebody remembers. It makes all the difference, doesn't it?

Donald J. Atchinson 14:44

Well, it it's it's absolutely fantastic. So we did that, and then we had one year we had the miners from Chile that were trapped underground for I think it was over 70 days.

Dr Ariel R King 14:58

I I remember that story.

Donald J. Atchinson 15:00

Yes. And they came to Saskatoon for the prayer breakfast. And we had them here. They gave me a mining hat and they signed it with their number. When they came out of the mine, each person was assigned the number, first one up all the way through to the very last. That was such a moving moment as well for me when we heard their story, and it was, and the people were there, it was quite riveting. We had another prayer breakfast too, where we had we recognized the women in our community and how special they were. And we had several like that as well. So the prayer breakfast was absolutely wonderful. We had one lady comment in the paper that her her blood boiled when she saw the mayor's head bowed in prayer. And I'm going, wow. Isn't that something?

Dr Ariel R King 15:56

So is this like an issue of separation of prayer and state? Prayer and was that an issue with the gentleman that said, or the man, pardon me, the man that they said that he was a max marksman and and basically threatened the life of you and your and your family? Is that was that an issue for them?

Donald J. Atchinson 16:14

It may have been. I I think part of it also is that I believe in the private sector. I don't believe in government. Yeah, I I spent most of my life in government, okay. But I don't believe that you can rely on government. And that's it. Actually, everything.

Dr Ariel R King 16:30

I guess there's a partnership, right? There's a partnership that's between government, non-governmental organizations, and private business. That is not just all the government.

Donald J. Atchinson 16:41

But exactly.

Dr Ariel R King 16:42

I mean, it doesn't seem radical in terms of uh a thought process or a way forward. It it seems quite average right now.

Donald J. Atchinson 16:50

Well, for people that live

Government Limits And City Growth

Donald J. Atchinson 16:52

in Saskatoon, in some ways that was quite radical. And that I said if you're waiting for the government to help you, you could be standing at the bus stop waiting a long time.

Dr Ariel R King 17:04

And yeah, I'm sure there are people that didn't like that because there's some people that think that the government should do anything and everything, that the government is like uh, you know, a parent in some way.

Donald J. Atchinson 17:16

That that's exactly right. And I believe government has its role. I I I believe government has a place to make the life better for people, to provide your safety and security for you, to make sure that people have proper transportation, to give people, and I keep going back to hope and opportunity and faith that your children's life can be better. When I was the mayor, we ran through the fastest growing city for over three consecutive years in a row, which is not, they say it's not possible.

Dr Ariel R King 17:50

That's amazing.

Donald J. Atchinson 17:50

But we were out promoting our community. We had a lot of, I call them newcomers. I don't call them immigrants, a lot of newcomers. And I have tremendous, tremendous respect for people who migrate to other countries. Just tremendous respect. And the reason I have that respect for them is I lived in the United States, and people think Americans and Canadians are the same. Well, I don't know how to break this to people who are not. Our cultures are very similar, but not exactly the same. We have different language. We have Americans speak American, Canadians

Welcoming Newcomers With Respect

Donald J. Atchinson 18:30

speak Canadian, and the English speak English. And I've said that for years. And the other day on television, a politician said when King Charles was at the White House, and they said, you know, Americans speak American and the English speak English. They just forgot the Canadians, that's all. I love that.

Dr Ariel R King 18:52

I love that. Three, three, what was it, three nations divided by one language?

Donald J. Atchinson 18:57

Yes. Exactly. But what it is is that these the newcomers that come, these people were usually like they've been doctors, they've been lawyers, dentists, accountants, engineers, like these professional people, but their credentials were not recognized in Canada in a lot of cases. And so here they are, they're doing janitorial work, they become sales clerks, whatever, they become cab drivers, all these things to give their children a better quality of life in the end. And I don't think their children really realize how much their parents have given up for them and how much they truly love them. And so consequently, I always wanted to make sure I went to their functions all the time. So if we had a Filipino function, and by the way, our doctor for all five of our children was Filipino, Dr. Meningus.

Dr Ariel R King 19:59

That's fabulous.

Donald J. Atchinson 20:01

We we would go there, we had two nannies that came from the Philippines as well. And so we became like part of the family. We would go to events for the Pakistanis, for people from Ghana, whatever, wherever it was.

Dr Ariel R King 20:15

I love that. I love the fact that you call them newcomers rather than you know coming new, the people that that are coming new. And I think there is something to that in many countries, unfortunately, when you go with uh professional qualifications, you have to somehow go through the system in order to have those qualifications met. I think that's the same also within schooling with uh university degrees. So but what I really love is the fact that in the city where you were the mayor, um, you made it clear to everybody around you that not only were they welcome, but they are valued, that various people from various countries are valued, and you are happy to have them there, and you find value in their being there.

Donald J. Atchinson 20:58

I I I don't understand like, for example, I would have one friend who had a very heavy French accent, okay? And everybody would say, Boy, he's got a strong accent. And I would go, really? He was Raymond to me. Okay, that was Raymond. It wasn't he had a strong accent, that was Raymond, okay. That that the Raymond, d'accord. And other people like that too, like we didn't distinguish between color or accents, whatever. My mother, she was German, she never spoke a word of English in her life until she was six years old. Oh she went to school and she went and asked her city sisters in German. What were they saying? Excuse me.

Dr Ariel R King 21:50

Bless you.

Donald J. Atchinson 21:53

So anyway, the show is there.

Dr Ariel R King 21:56

So your your your parents came here also, so they basically Came as newcomers, is that correct? From Germany to is it to America and then America to Canada?

Donald J. Atchinson 22:07

No, mother was born in Canada, but never heard a word of English until she went to school.

Dr Ariel R King 22:13

Because they were because in the household they spoke German. Yes.

Donald J. Atchinson 22:17

German. And all the church was German.

Dr Ariel R King 22:19

Yeah.

Donald J. Atchinson 22:20

Friends were German. Everything's German.

Dr Ariel R King 22:22

Right. Makes a difference.

Donald J. Atchinson 22:25

So anyway, that's what transpired for her. My dad's family were already in Canada and came from Ireland.

Dr Ariel R King 22:33

That's fantastic. So pardon me, you're someone that knows it intimately. You grew up with basically people that have come and have another language, and there's respect for it. There's a it's more than a respect. There's, I won't say preference, but it's positive to come from somewhere else. It's positive to bring the language and the culture and so on and so forth. We only have about three more minutes left. Could you please tell us more about your book and where we can buy the book and also how we can get in touch with you?

Donald J. Atchinson 23:01

Okay. Well, the book's called Building Bridges. And Building Bridges is, you can get it on Amazon.ca. And it's a one, I think it's a very good read. People tell me when they read it, it sounds just like I'm speaking to them at the time.

Dr Ariel R King 23:17

Yeah, I've I'm I'm reading it. It does. It it really does. You're there with me while I'm reading it.

Donald J. Atchinson 23:23

And so that that's it's called, and it I think it's a wonderful book. It gets a bit about the history about the city as

Where To Buy The Book

Donald J. Atchinson 23:30

well. The part there's so many stories I could tell you uh in the book as well, but they're they're they'll be good to read down the road here. So it's called Building Bridges, it's on Amazon.ca. And my name is Donald Acheson, and you can reach me at d.atchatch at shaws.ca. So it's a d.atch at shaw.ca.

Dr Ariel R King 24:02

And that's and can they find you on LinkedIn also, or what other social media can we find?

Donald J. Atchinson 24:06

Yeah, LinkedIn on as well. I'm on LinkedIn as well with that, also on Facebook, too. So there's those are the places that they can certainly reach me at. But I wrote the book because I wanted to set the record straight and just let people know about our city of Saskatoon. And for all your listeners and viewers, come on out to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We have 100,000 lakes. We're three times the size of France, a force bigger than Germany. We have the richest uranium in the world. We have 500 years of potash. We have gold diamonds. We have farmers' fields. We we have everything here that people want: food, fuel, and fertilizer, and a community that really cares

An Invitation To Saskatoon

Donald J. Atchinson 24:53

about people.

Dr Ariel R King 24:54

You know what? I am on my way. Fabulous. Thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it and look forward to reading more and learning more about what you do. For our audience, I want to thank you for being with us. And remember, if I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I'm only for myself, when am I? If not now, then when? That's by the great philosopher Hello. And I've added, if not me, then who? Thank you so much for joining us.