Five of the ten largest cities elect a mayor

Five of the ten largest cities in Quebec will be headed by a woman. Montreal, Longueuil, Gatineau, Sherbrooke and Saguenay will all have a mayor, while Quebec has escaped Marie-Josée Savard at the very end of the evening.

Louise Leduc
Press

Besides Valérie Plante who was re-elected in the metropolis, Catherine Fournier was brought to power in Longueuil, France Bélisle in Gatineau, Évelyne Beaudin in Sherbrooke and Julie Dufour in Saguenay.

After having had its first mayoress four years ago, the metropolis will now be led by two women, underlined Valérie Plante in her victory speech, since Dominique Ollivier will become the new president of the executive committee of the City of Montreal.

In the late evening press scrum, Catherine Fournier, new mayor of Longueuil, said she was “very proud and moved to be part of this wave. [féminine] historical ”. “I hope that it will make its children on all the political scenes in Quebec. ”

“We will have done it!” A first woman at the town hall! launched Évelyne Beaudin, new mayor of Sherbrooke. Look at the little girls around you, the little girls who want to do big things and who now will have role models in all spheres. ”

In Gatineau, they were even two to run for mayor, just like in Magog.

Maude Marquis-Bissonnette, candidate defeated in Gatineau, stressed that despite her disappointment, the victory of her opponent France Bélisle represented “another glass ceiling that explodes”.

“It’s not just an evolution, it’s a revolution! ”Exclaimed in a telephone interview Colette Roy-Laroche, well-known former mayor of Lac-Mégantic.

“It shows that mentalities are changing, and I am impressed by the quality of the mayors of large cities who have been brought to power. They seem to me to have great skills and vision. ”

That being said, M^me Roy-Laroche doubts that everything is acquired for them. She fears that in some respects they still have to fight to have their skills recognized, just as she says she herself had to demonstrate, in her first term in 2002, that she had “all the credibility needed to talk about infrastructure ”.

This breakthrough of women in big cities was predictable. As calculated by the Women, Politics and Democracy group, among the 22 municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, the rate of female candidates, all positions combined, was significantly higher than that of all municipalities in Quebec. For mayor positions, it was 34.1% in large cities, compared to 24.3%. “A stark contrast to 2017, where there were only 19.1% of mayor positions in the 20 largest cities with 50,000 inhabitants or more,” says Thérèse Mailloux, president of the Women, Politics and Democracy group.

M^me Mailloux is now eager to see the composition of the various municipal councils. “Valérie Plante and Catherine Fournier in Longueuil presented joint teams, just like men running for mayor elsewhere,” she emphasizes.

Suzanne Roy, former president of the Union of Quebec municipalities, is also delighted that more and more women have come forward to be councilors. “That’s how I got into politics. Being a counselor is the gateway. ”

A divide between large and small towns and villages

This resounding victory for women in the big cities, however, further highlights the divide with the smaller municipalities, of which Quebec is largely made up and where parity is still far from being achieved.

“In some places, the municipal council is made up entirely of men,” observes Thérèse Mailloux.

“In small municipalities, there is very little renewal,” she adds. Often, the mayor has been in place for three, four or five terms and things don’t mix easily. Independent candidates find themselves alone in front of a team already in place. ”

According to data from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, across the province, the official proportion of women candidates for mayor this year was 24.3% (438/1802) and 37.4% for councilor. (3882/10 380). After the 2017 municipal elections, there were 18.8% female mayors and 34.5% female councilors.