Editorial interview at La Presse | The “retreat” of women in Anglade’s line of sight

They aspire to be elected Premier of Quebec on October 3. Over the next few days, the leaders of the five major parties will take questions from our reporters.

Fanny Levesque
The Press

The way of thinking about politics is still “very traditional” and “masculine” in the eyes of Dominique Anglade. As the election approaches, the Liberal leader is playing the feminine card more than ever to distinguish herself from her opponents. She wants to talk less about the third link and more about the mental load of women.

“Which do you think has the most impact? Which one, if we were able to settle it, would drastically change things for Quebec? I think that to ask the question is to answer it,” said the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) in an interview with the editorial team of The PressMonday.

“For me, it’s not playing a card,” she retorts. “It’s doing politics in my own way” with “feminine leadership” that would “tint” the public policies of an Anglade government. She cites “mental load” as a subject “that we don’t usually discuss” even today.

She did it for the first time during the last leaders’ debate.

Since mid-campaign, Dominique Anglade has opted for a more relaxed style, wanting to make the “real Dominique” known. She is also more openly courting female voters by addressing them and talking about her personal experiences.

The advertising campaign of the last straight line of his campaign is no exception. The slogan, “Do you vote liberal? Yes Madam ! “, is not without recalling the day of the triggering of the elections when François Legault had refused to name her by calling her “this lady”.

The one who took control of the PLQ in 2020 does not budge: women are the most affected by the pandemic and the labor shortage, which affects traditionally more feminine sectors such as education and health.

The labor crisis is also at the heart of his campaign.

She accuses her CAQ opponent of not recognizing her and of lacking “consideration” towards women.

“What we are experiencing today is a setback. I know that François Legault does not like it when I say that, but it is not my problem, ”she unchecks.

” It’s difficult [pour les femmes] at work because you compensate for the lack of staff, you come home and it may be difficult because your children do not have [accès] to the services necessary for their learning… You have an enormous mental load”, illustrates Dominique Anglade.

But these are issues that are not put forward enough during the election campaign. Dominique Anglade, the only candidate in the running for the post of Prime Minister among the main parties, deplores at the same time that politics is still thought of in a “very traditional” and “masculine” way.

She cites as an example the handling of the labor crisis, which must be seen as not only an economic issue, but a “social” issue.

She returns to the effects of the shortage on the education, health and community sectors, which are “largely carried by women”.

Earlier in the day, she argued during a press briefing with her candidates Madwa-Nika Cadet and Filomena Rotiroti that women held “the social safety net” of Quebec “at arm’s length”. She would emphasize this issue in a “major” way in the first 100 days of a Liberal government.

Since the start of the campaign, Dominique Anglade has contrasted her style of leadership, which she describes as collaborative and inclusive, with that of François Legault. “It’s radically different,” she says.

“When I started working, I was four times a minority: a young black French-speaking girl in a completely different environment. I know what it is to ensure that each person around the table is able to have a voice and that this voice is heard, ”pleads the 48-year-old chef.

Still “elements of a boy club »

The first woman to become leader of the PLQ and the first black woman to lead a political party in Quebec, Dominique Anglade observes that there are still “elements of a boy club “In politics as in” all areas of activity “, moreover, she takes care to qualify.

She immediately thinks of a question from a journalist after her performance in the Radio-Canada debate. “I was told: ‘Madame Anglade, where were your boxing gloves?’ How ? […] Why do we have to look at politics from the angle of combativeness, about who gives the best clip, the best shot? she asks.

His few dance steps filmed before the debate and broadcast on social networks also aroused mixed reactions.

” Globally, [c’était] super positive,” she says. But there was a “more traditional” reaction that made him think of the controversy over Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s dance. “It is these mentalities that we must change,” she says.

Dominique Anglade hesitates when asked if playing the female leadership card isn’t a double-edged sword. “Maybe, maybe not,” she says, retorting that she’s more self-assured with age.

“It’s not fair to say I’m a woman and I’m black. It is to say that, by what I have experienced, I know what it is. I know what it’s like, me, going to negotiate my salary knowing that I’m the one who’s going to make the least money and telling myself that I have to find a way to negotiate for it to work, my affair. »