Ashley Gillespie

Watch the Video

Well, I train horses so that takes up a big chunk of my time. It’s trying to balance work and training horses on evenings and weekends. It is rewarding in the end, and I find my career to be the same way. It takes a lot of hard work and it’s rewarding in the end as well.

I’m Ashley Gillespie. I’m from Stonewall, Manitoba, just a little town northwest of the city. Grown up here all my life. Studied agriculture at the University of Manitoba and graduated from there in animal health. And that led me to my career in CFIA.

Animals have such a big impact on our rural communities. You know they’re the livelihood of so many people and, well, I always knew I wanted a job in the agriculture industry. And growing up on a beef farm, seeing how so many of these diseases affect the small family farm, I wanted to do something about it and really help out. And with the CFIA, we’re studying diseases that are affecting the family farms and we’re helping to protect Canada’s people and make it a better place. So that’s just, it was only natural to want to work for the CFIA.

It’s very easy to come to work. Everyone works together and it’s rewarding at the end knowing that the product leaving the establishment we’ve inspected, we’re helping to make it safe for the consumer and that’s rewarding.

I really loved growing up on a farm. It was such a calm atmosphere, you can relax, you’re away from the city, the hustle and bustle of the city, and that’s how I’m raising my kids now (my two boys) and being involved in rodeo has given me the competitive edge. And I’ve carried that over into my career, just trying to get where I am. I’ve put all my effort into it. It’s taught me how to work hard for something that I really want.