Born in Ivory Coast, but raised in Senegal, the 41-year-old has lived, worked and volunteered in the small northeastern New Brunswick town for the last 14 years. For Kassim Doumbia, Shippagan is home. And in the latest municipal election, residents of New Brunswick decided to make him their Mayor.
“This election was very important to me because by being elected, I’m the first Black Mayor in New Brunswick…so for me it’s like, ‘Wow, Shippagan people did really accept me in the community. So for the citizens to elect me as the mayor, they see me as someone from the community, so that means a lot to me.”
New Brunswick first appeared on Doumbia’s radar in the late 1990s when he was a teenager. He was considering a destination to further his education when a friend who was studying at the University of Moncton told him about the developing city where unlimited opportunities abound. After successfully applying to study Computer Science, Doumbia left Ivory Coast at 19.
Since he left Ivory Coast at the age of 19, Doumbia returned just once in 2016 to visit his home country. When he was done with his degree, Doumbia said the crash of the dot-com bubble made it difficult to find work in his field. Consequently, he opted to go on to get a Masters degree in Business Administration while interning at the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton.
After his graduation, he relocated to Tracadie-Sheila to take a tech job based in Paquetville. In 2007, Doumbia and his wife, whom he met while studying at University of Moncton, moved to Shippagan to be close to her family. They have two daughters aged nine and 11.
In 2010, Doumbia said he started working as the executive assistant to then-Lamèque-Shippagan-Miscou MLA Paul Robichaud — a role he said “sparked” his interest in municipal politics. “I got to know the real people living in the community. So by working with Paul Robichaud, I was able to really connect with the struggle that the community — some people in the community — was living.
“I was enjoying that, so I said, “Why not apply to the council of the next election?” And the next election came in 2012, and I decided to put my name and I was elected the first time. “Doumbia served the full term, and went on to get re-elected in the 2016 election.
Marie-Lou Noël has worked directly with Doumbia since she was elected as a Councilor for Shippagan in 2016 and describes him as easy-going and intelligent.
“He’s a really good guy with people. He’s really, really intelligent and he knows a lot,” Noël said. “He was working for the government with Paul Robichaud at the time, so he has a lot of contacts and he puts this to the profit of our town.”
Noël, who was born in Quebec and moved to Shippagan 13 years ago, said she’s also proud of her town for showing its openness to newcomers by electing the province’s first Black mayor. Now Doumbia wants to focus on attracting more jobs to the region, improving access to affordable housing, and providing programs to get young people better engaged with the community.
