Municipal politics | Elected at the end of their rope

By resigning on Wednesday after months of managing forest fires which exhausted her, the young mayor of Chapais, Isabelle Lessard, called for a reflection on the lack of mental health resources for elected officials. And she is not the only one: everywhere in the municipal sector, we are demanding change.

“The hard weeks experienced last June during the forest fires had significant repercussions on my health and I must take the time necessary to heal,” writes Isabelle Lessard, aged 23, in her resignation letter.

In interview with The Press, the one who became known during the forest fires says she developed post-traumatic stress syndrome. “When it stopped, I couldn’t move on. I didn’t sleep better, I was constantly stressed, I was afraid. I was no longer the same, in fact,” she explains with emotion.

M^me Lessard asserts in passing that “it is high time to normalize” mental health issues in politics.

“As elected officials, we have no resources. When you arrive on sick leave, you have no disability insurance, no unemployment insurance, no assistance program. We are not considered self-employed, although in fact we are not employees either. It’s like a gray area,” she explains on this subject.

The fact that elected officials cannot be absent for more than 90 days, “that must change,” she also considers. “When we talk about illness, family reasons or other serious reasons, I think it needs to be done differently. Having a deadline hanging over our heads means that we necessarily have to get better in 90 days. But that’s not always the reality. »

Day, evening, weekend

In recent months, several other elected officials have expressed their difficulties in terms of mental health. At the end of October, the mayor of Sherbrooke Évelyne Beaudin announced that she was suspending her activities to avoid “a state of exhaustion which would be too significant and too difficult to overcome”.

His office also says it is very concerned. “There is a collective awareness to be made. All people who work in public services are currently under the same pressure and the expectations of the general population are very high,” notes the mayor’s political advisor, Philippe Pagé.

He recalls that elected officials “must make themselves available during the day, evenings, weekends, public holidays and summer vacations”. “You have to watch your appearance, have judgment, be a good manager, make compromises, have leadership, share a vision while communicating skillfully with the media and the population, on all platforms,” lists the person who deals with them on a daily basis. M^me Beaudin.

In Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, who had to deal for months with her role as mayor and the trial of her attacker Harold LeBel, estimated Wednesday that “the nature of our functions means that we are accountable for everything”. “I do not question this, because democracy is based on this fundamental principle, but we must admit that this represents an enormous burden for the humans that we are. »

After politics, the “boomerang” effect

Former mayor of Verdun, Jean-François Parenteau can also testify to the difficulty of the job. He withdrew from political life in 2021 due to “increasingly present personal attacks and gratuitous comments” on social networks.

Politics, “it’s a big gift of self, we give a lot, often to the detriment of our families, so there is always a boomerang effect after politics, on a human level,” adds the former elected official.

According to him, the municipal sphere is particularly difficult, “since it is often there that people meet again” when things are not going well. “There are pressures that do not necessarily exist at the provincial and federal levels,” he says.

For municipal and metropolitan management expert Danielle Pilette, from UQAM, it is above all important to establish “a real culture of collaboration”. “Cities are autonomous, but that does not mean that the mayor should be left to his own devices. The ability to delegate, especially for a major crisis, must be encouraged. And that must be reflected in the training we give to elected officials,” she says.

A new plan?

In Quebec, the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest, said she was sympathetic to the situation of M^me Lessard. “We still see that [pour] elected officials, sometimes it’s difficult. And the forest fires were very difficult,” the minister underlined on Wednesday.

Last March, at a time when elected officials deplored a harmful climate in their municipalities, Quebec had already announced a fund of 2 million dollars with the Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ) and the Fédération québécoise des municipalities (FQM) “ to better support elected officials.”

The president of the UMQ Martin Damphousse argues that this issue “gravely reminds us that municipal elected officials are above all human beings”.

“The challenges and crises they face are increasingly complex, and are also indicative of the importance of their role,” he said, recalling that the UMQ is still working on developing a plan to better support cities and allow them to extend their employee assistance program to elected officials.

Quebec also assures that it wants to put in place “means to provide the required assistance to those who need it”. In addition to training and awareness campaigns, harassment and intimidation are already targeted by a ministerial action plan launched before the 2021 elections, recalls Ms.^me Laforest.

Other overloaded elected officials

Exhaustion, overwork, intimidation: everywhere on the political scene, elected officials have jumped ship or taken a break over the years. Here are some examples.

Françoise David

In January 2017, Françoise David, who was then co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, announced her resignation to avoid the worst. “I’m stopping before I fall into what we call burn-out or professional exhaustion,” she said during an emotional speech to a group of activists from her constituency of Gouin.

Melanie Clavet

In Petite-Vallée, in Gaspésie, Mayor Mélanie Clavet announced last March that she was retiring from political life. She then cited two main factors: threats and verbal attacks, and the fact that mayors of small villages often have to work two jobs to make ends meet.

Ian Lacharité

Elected in 2021 in the municipality of Wickham, in Centre-du-Québec, Ian Lacharité resigned on March 21 after a mandate and a half as municipal councilor. He then filed a complaint with the Sûreté du Québec: after several hostile messages on social networks, it was an “altercation” involving “a citizen with [s]“joint” which broke the camel’s back.

Melanie Mark

Last February, the first indigenous member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Melanie Mark, announced her resignation by attacking the political environment more directly. She spoke of a “dysfunctional political environment”. “This place looked like a torture chamber. I will not miss the attacks against me,” she illustrated.

Jean Lamarche

Upon his return to work after a six-month sick leave this year, the mayor of Trois-Rivières, Jean Lamarche, admitted to having considered resigning. Exhausted by the search for unanimity on an industrial park project, the elected official explained that he had changed his approach to the municipal apparatus to find a certain balance. In interview with The Nouvelliste in July, the mayor deplored the radicalization of speeches and the ambient climate which undermines the morale of municipal elected officials.

Luc Fortin

Then Minister of Culture and Communications in Philippe Couillard’s government, Sherbrooke MP Luc Fortin took a break of several weeks in the spring of 2016 due to work overload. In interview with The gallery recently, he recalled being “at the end of his tether,” worrying that social media had “increased aggressive comments.”