(Montreal) The mayor of Sherbrooke, Évelyne Beaudin, announced Friday that she will not seek a new mandate in the 2025 municipal elections, accusing the Quebec government of not listening to municipal elected officials and of leaving them alone with their issues .
During a press briefing held Friday morning, Mr.me Beaudin explained that she will finish her current term as mayor, but that she does not see herself committing “for another four years.”
She recognized that “being an elected official in 2024 is not very popular”, due to the climate of intimidation and aggression which is part of the work of politicians, but she affirmed that it is above all the lack support from Quebec to help municipal elected officials navigate this context which distresses her.
Mme Beaudin mentioned that when she leaves town hall in November 2025, she will do so with the feeling of having moved Sherbrooke forward. She hopes that the work she has done during her mandate will allow the person who succeeds her to benefit from a “less difficult” environment.
Mme Beaudin, who in 2021 became the first woman to be elected mayor of Sherbrooke, temporarily withdrew from her duties in October following the recommendation of her doctor. She then explained that she wanted to avoid “a state of exhaustion which would be too significant and too difficult to overcome”.
She finally returned to work in January, at first gradually.
But the last few weeks have been eventful in Sherbrooke political life. The president of the municipal council, Danielle Berthold, notably left her seat on the executive council, before being removed from her role as president of the municipal council.
Mme Berthold had accused Mme Beaudin for threatening her because of her opposition to the proposed tax on swimming pools.
During the winter, the municipal council also began a mediation process, the objective of which was to ease tensions between elected officials.
The name of Mme Beaudin will therefore be added to the list of women who have left municipal political life in recent months, which notably includes the former mayor of Gatineau, France Bélisle, and the former mayor of Chapais, Isabelle Lessard.
An economist by training, Évelyne Beaudin was elected municipal councilor in Sherbrooke in 2017.
In the following elections, in 2021, she ran for mayor and defeated the outgoing mayor, Steve Lussier, but also a “star candidate”, the former provincial Liberal minister Luc Fortin.