The new mayor of Quebec bears a very bad name. His name is Bruno Marchand and yet he has only been running since his election. The duty conducted an interview at a run with this hyperactive elected official, who is already setting his pace in Quebec.
The mercury was -33°C that day in the capital. Bruno Marchand had foreseen the coup: snowmobile mittens on his hands and a neck warmer up to his nose, he rushes into the streets of what is now his city. The freezing air wasn’t going to slow him down: his journey, after all, is that of a brave man.
Before becoming mayor, Bruno Marchand chaired Centraide, often ran 90 km a week and cycled another 10,000 a year. Unable to stop on such a good path, he also found the time to participate in duathlon championships and to rise, why not, to 19and world rank in Spain.
It was three years ago, and the idea of conquering the mayor of Quebec was beginning to germinate in his mind. Successful bet: accustomed to leaving from afar, even from almost nothing, Bruno Marchand, who was a student supervisor at the Saint-Charles-Garnier college 30 years ago, today watches over the destiny of the capital, after having converted 1% support in victory.
Even at the controls of the city, he zyeute the world championships of Targu Mures scheduled for June in Romania. “I would like that, to participate. For me, the event forces me to train, ”explains this tireless man for whom the suit and tie really does not make the mayor.
English-language media have already renamed him “Bruno March”. An almost premonitory homonymous resemblance to another Bruno, king of pop that one, who transforms everything he touches into success.
The performer
“He’s good at just about everything,” says Mayor Jimmy Gobeil, co-owner of the Le Coureur Nordique boutique and unofficial supplier, for the past ten years, of the famous sneakers that are now the hallmark of the elected.
A man on whom ambition smiles so much necessarily nourishes great ambitions for his city. Bruno Marchand dreams of highways for bicycles worthy of Berlin and Copenhagen and wants to embrace the northernness of Quebec to consider skiing to go to work downtown.
He wants to eliminate homelessness and promises to make every district of the capital shine. “I want us to put light everywhere. Respect for citizens imposes that, ”according to him.
“Bruno is a person inhabited by challenges,” says his neighbor and running accomplice, Anne-Marie Delobbe. “He never made a speech like: it’s impossible, I can’t do it. »
Chasing the peaks of sport, Bruno Marchand proceeds methodically, yielding nothing to chance or the unexpected. He respects a programmed training according to each competition. In the virtual bike courses he continues to pedal a few times a week with a group of friends, he knows the obstacles ahead and the ways to deal with them. “He anticipates the difficulties,” explains Anne-Marie.
The mayor says he agrees with the label of performance, before changing his mind 50 meters further. “I am above all a determined person who never, ever, ever gives up. »
His party is called Quebec strong and proud: his close guard has an interest in being so. “People not doing their homework, I hate that. I hate it and I assume it, ”he says. Bruno Marchand tolerates failure, but on one condition. “Give your best, even if the result is not what you wanted. Afterwards, what you have left is great: it is to learn. »
In sport, “he’s someone who evaluates himself well,” adds Richard Chouinard, Bruno Marchand’s running coach at the Laval University club. “He sets goals that are realistic. Those who don’t reach their goals, it’s because they’re chasing a dream. »
The politician
Moons, Bruno Marchand promised to win some during the election campaign.
As a candidate, he had sworn to save trees and mentioned the burial of wires along the tramway. Once mayor, the reality of a project conceived under another administration caught up with him: the sacrifice of 1500 trees remains necessary and the cold of Quebec, even if it does not prevent the elected official from going running with The duty, makes it impossible for power cables to disappear underground.
Some also accuse him of procrastinating in the files of the 3and link and the standard of nickel in the air which is about to quintuple. This increase is worrying in an industrial district like Limoilou, already subject to many contaminants.
The mayor believes that democracy sets its own pace. He does not intend to get ahead of him, even if he runs faster than any mayor before him.
“These are too easy reproaches, because it means that we no longer have time to do things,” said the mayor. I was elected to govern and I will. But it is to deprive oneself of a strong democracy, to be obliged to position oneself without nuance. »
Bruno Marchand proposes to organize a plenary committee on the question of nickel. Let the elected officials take it for granted: this kind of exercise, which allows councilors to question experts and players in the community before deciding on a question, will multiply during his mandate.
“It’s not a deception, a plenary committee,” said the mayor between two strides in the rue Saint-Louis. “It’s access to science and knowledge. It is vital as a starting point. I think it’s also a way of countering cynicism in politics and enhancing the role of elected officials. Believing in the intelligence of advisers also means giving them the right to be autonomous, to be independent, to make their mark. »
The idealist
A philosophy student in his early twenties, Bruno Marchand rubbed shoulders with a man whose impression he made on him still lives in him today: Socrates, the philosopher of virtue, who made people aware of Athenians they knew nothing to enable them to learn.
“I have always found that this is one of the greatest successes of philosophy, that of getting people to reflect, to question themselves, to question, to hear and listen to the other, affirms he. Do not look for the fault, but seek to understand. It is the precursor to a healthy democracy. »
The mayor is certain: citizens “know how to think by and for themselves” and have the “intelligence to make the right choices” for their neighborhood. “Every time you build a place without considering the people who live there, you disgrace yourself,” he says. You forgot the most important. »
If Régis Labeaume exuded the aura of a Roman emperor, with his Colosseum and his disdain for the opposition, Bruno Marchand stands up as a defender of the Republic. Ready, like Socrates, to drink hemlock rather than betray his principles.
“Ideals have to survive the political game,” he believes. I said it to my elected officials: your re-election, mine, I don’t care. It should never be on our radar. »
After 30 minutes of running and a blister at the foot of the Duty, the mayor’s almost messianic faith in his ability to federate Quebec seemed unshakeable. His election was a miracle for many. However, here he is mayor today. The task, by his own admission, now looks “titanic”. It was also at a run that he returned to the town hall at the end of the interview. When the objectives are up to such an ambition, it is better not to waste time hoping to achieve them in four years.