What happened on Sunday night goes much further than a re-election in Montreal. Without minimizing the importance of this, I want to put it in context to bring out what I see as a sign of renewal – something like real change.
We often forget to what extent the actions that we carry out individually and collectively today take time before percolating on a larger scale. Or rather, we get impatient. Everything goes so fast on the other hand that when the anticipated result does not follow immediately, we count a failure and we turn our attention elsewhere.
And yet. In our life stories, we find each and every one of the examples of a significant event, sometimes trivial at the time, which inspired us to take another path.
It can be a word from a parent or a teacher, even a complete stranger; support that made the difference, that allowed us to reframe our vision of the world.
Large systems are heavy and complex, and neither can they be changed so quickly. Addressing the United Nations on Monday as part of the Climate Change Conference, Barack Obama underlined the difficulty of mobilizing political institutions on a global scale in the time required.
Faced with the immobility of political power, our exasperation sometimes gets the better of our optimism, and it is there that we fall into cynicism and despair, this harmful mixture of negative emotions that we now call eco-anxiety. . However, we should not be in despair, because the flapping of the wings of a butterfly somewhere in the Botanical Garden will eventually bring down the town hall …
Bad memories
Let’s go back to our not-so-distant past: fall 2012. In October, Gilles Vaillancourt, mayor of Laval, resigned following searches by UPAC and the Sûreté du Québec. He will be found guilty of fraud, conspiracy and breach of trust following his trial in 2016. Montreal’s city hall is not much better, the administration is plagued by allegations of corruption and of collusion. We watched, amazed, Mayor Gérald Tremblay, still in denial, finally resign, and then his successor Michael Applebaum being arrested seven months later. In short, nothing to inspire confidence in the political class.
During this dark period, the foundations for change were already being laid. Despite the despair and the reflex to cynicism, a few good people were busy making a difference and bringing something new. The butterfly was flapping its wings.
On Sunday, the wind of this beating of wings, amplified by the time and the work of thousands of candidates and volunteers, swept across Quebec. A breath of fresh air that gave the metropolis a second term in office for a progressive administration led by Valérie Plante, this “joyful warrior” with dazzling laughter. Elsewhere in Quebec, new faces, younger, more feminine too, are taking the leadership of large Quebec cities. We salute Catherine Fournier in Longueuil, Stéphane Boyer in Laval, France Bélisle in Gatineau and Évelyne Beaudin in Sherbrooke, and finally Bruno Marchand, finally declared the winner after a spectacular turnaround in Quebec City.
The word we hear everywhere on the lips of these newly elected or re-elected mayors: “transparency”. We have learned from our past, and don’t want to repeat the same mistakes. And then, “optimism”.
The challenges will be great for these newly elected officials, certainly. But before we jump too quickly to the caveats of the work ahead, let’s take a moment collectively to greet their arrival and savor the victory of hope over cynicism.
* Political columnist, Justine McIntyre is currently studying for a master’s degree in management and sustainable development at HEC Montréal.
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