Coun. Ramona Robins has announced she will not run again in the 2025 city election as she plans to spend a year travelling with her children on an educational tour of Europe, Asia and Australia.--News File Photo
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City Councillor Ramona Robins has announced she will leave office about one month before the term ends late next year to embark on a postponed year-long global travel and learning trip with her daughters.
She told the News that the journey – around the world with educational activities throughout – is something she has been dreamed about for years, and is made possible through a sabbatical program with her private employer.
Robins, a former Crown prosecutor and now manager with Alberta Justice, began paying a portion of her annual salary toward the sabbatical program when her twin girls were born about 10 years ago.
Now, she’s scheduling accommodations and mapping out points of interest to see when they leave in late August 2025 as the children would enter Grade 7.
“This is something I would have dreamed of as a kid,” said Robins on Tuesday. “I could take the money (set aside for salary) and waste it on a bigger house or car, but then I thought about this opportunity.”
Robins said when she was 12 she joined a friend’s family on a two-month cross-Canada camping trip and came back feeling confident, independent and “fiercely patriotic” having learned about Canada by experiencing it.
She hopes to give the same experience, a wide view of the world and a sense of inquiry to her children.
Robins was elected in 2021 in her first attempt at public office, winning 8,113 votes, the most of any council candidate in an election that saw six new councillors elected to the eight positions.
Approaching the three-year mark of the term, Robins says working under a microscope at city hall has been a learning experience, but she’s not exiting politics because she has soured on the experience.
“People shouldn’t assume the worst,” Robins said. “I’ve really enjoyed it, and I’ve learned so much. It’s really been a spark for me and I’ll consider (my future in) politics when I get back.”
The next municipal election is scheduled for October 2025, meaning Robins would be absent for the final three meetings of the term.
She said at that point there should be little in terms of major decision making ahead of a vote in late October.
“We really shouldn’t be deciding anything binding on the next council at that point,” she said. “Until then I’ll happily continue to serve on council.”
After the 2021 election, Robins says she wishfully pencilled in the trip for 2024-25 school year, thinking that perhaps she could handle the duties of councillor remotely. That was soon changed however, when the workload and responsibilities became clear, she said, and the trip was bumped until 2025-26.
The general itinerary begins in the United Kingdom and Ireland along with Western Europe in the fall, then major destinations in Asia, Australia and New Zealand in the winter before returning to Europe with stops in Italy and Greece before concluding in Egypt.
After that, the family will return to the Hat, school and work, said Robins.
