Whether we are for Valérie Plante, the mayoress of Montreal, or decidedly against her, everyone agrees: here is a woman who has the gift of surprising. She surprised by beating Louise Harel in her first municipal election in 2013; she surprised by winning the leadership race at Projet Montréal in 2016; she surprised once again by winning the jackpot in 2017. “Three hundred and seventy-five years after Jeanne Mance, Montreal finally has its first mayoress! »She had launched then, more joyful than ever.
Four years later, the 47-year-old finds herself shoulder to shoulder with the same antagonist, Denis Coderre. But this time the bar is much higher. In 2017, Valérie Plante could be satisfied with being the anti-Denis: a woman, younger, in a good mood, oozing novelty and community involvement rather than old tricks and Formula 1. Not to mention her card. visit, Projet Montréal, well established 12 years after its creation. A party not only with a “vision” of the metropolis, but one of the few, after the late RCM, which truly functions as a political party, recalls Daniel Sanger in his book Saving the city: Projet Montréal and the challenge of transforming a modern metropolis (Ecosociety). A party that functions as it should: through congresses and policy debates, local associations and investiture assemblies.
From the Civic Action League of Jean Drapeau to the Denis Coderre Team – not to mention Mélanie Joly and her True Change, Balarama Hollness and her Mouvement Montréal, Marc-Antoine Desjardins and his Ralliement pour Montréal, and how many others… – , all these political incarnations are ultimately only a second-hand vehicle seeking “to take power”.
In 2017, Valérie Plante had everything going for her. In 2021, while offering a very positive assessment and in continuity with the party’s objectives – more social housing, cycle paths, cultural influence, not to mention good management of the pandemic -, the heiress of Jeanne Mance is dragging its feet. own balls: a difficulty in accepting criticism, mood swings, a tendency to play BCBG policy that will not upset “the Chamber of Commerce”, behaviors that have aroused discontent within the ranks, relates author Daniel Sanger. (His book is to be read as much for its intellectual honesty as to understand this difficult-to-grasp thousand-legged machine that is municipal politics.)
In fact, four years after her election, the ultimate surprise of Valérie Plante is that she has often shown herself to be more adept at managing the City of Montreal than managing her own zouaves. However, we expected exactly the opposite. It was thought that the “daughter of party Would be a good party leader, but a mayoress without too much stature. For lack of experience, obviously, not to mention the difficulty of the left parties to go from loudmouths to effective managers overnight. The challenge for anyone would have been considerable, but for a young woman at the head of a young progressive party, it was simply dizzying.
“I too would cry sometimes,” said Marie Plourde, thus underlining the personal criticisms addressed to the mayoress. The Plateau-Mont-Royal borough councilor believes that the undue attention paid to Mr.me Plante emphasizes the double standard imposed on women in politics. “Denis Coderre is known for his holy anger and who blames him? She also recalls the “training for women” given to elected officials of Projet Montréal in 2014 to teach them how to dress and speak in public. “You shouldn’t get carried away,” she said, smirking.
With only 24% of mayors as a whole, Quebec is still not a promised land for women in politics, it is clear. But if one undoubtedly takes a more severe look at the behavior of women leaders, there is also a certain excess of zeal which is due to the women themselves. I am speaking here from experience, having already ventured into the land of men: the predominantly male world of the media at one time.
I know the vertigo of suddenly having to perform without having any benchmarks or models, of having to invent on the spot what it is to be a woman in a traditionally masculine position. I believe that the fear of not being up to the task, the fear of underperforming, often leads to overperformance in women, especially in management positions: a need to be too much in control, too quick dismissals, too much criticism. severe. We put too much of it for fear of not putting enough. Like Valérie Plante, women then pass for “big egos”, intoxicated with power, while the problem lies elsewhere. It is in this chronic insecurity that we still too often find in women, a lack of self-esteem camouflaged under an ox front.
After the issue of sexual assault, the best-kept secret today is what women are going through in politics and in high places.
By wishing for equality between men and women, we forget that it is much more difficult than it sounds.
fpelletier@ledevoir.com
On Twitter : @ fpelletier1