Valérie Plante received her Christmas present on November 7th. Montrealers have decided to put a second term under her tree, and nothing – not even a COVID-19 infection – can erase her smile when she takes stock of 2021.
“It’s been a good year after all,” said the mayoress of Montreal on December 20 in an interview with Press.
The day before, she had announced that she had received a positive test for the coronavirus. Throat hoarse, apologizing for his slower than usual flow in front of his computer camera, Mme Plante noted the impressive surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, especially in the metropolis. The next morning, she declared a state of emergency in Montreal.
But this sad end of December, dark and anxious, should not make us forget the rest of the year.
1er Last January, Valérie Plante did not dare hope that her year would end with a resounding victory against Denis Coderre.
I wasn’t thinking of winning necessarily, but I wasn’t thinking of losing either. We were very lucid. We could see that we had a slope to go up, that we had costs to eat. And all this in the context of a pandemic.
Valerie Plante
The pandemic certainly did not harm his electoral success, analyzes the mayoress.
“COVID-19 is not easy. But I find that because of COVID-19, we talk to “us” a lot more, and that makes me feel good. It makes me feel good, the notion of collective good, the idea of leaving no one behind. I saw how much it speaks to people, ”she said.
ZOOM SCREENSHOTS
Valérie Plante, in interview with Press
Mme Plante says he saw this in particular during the election campaign. “I know that Montrealers are very progressive and see that they agree to put money for the homeless, that they agree that we help people who have difficulty in food affects me. ”
This period “did me a lot of good,” she continued. It also did me good to hear people on the ground say to me: “Mme Plant, we love you. ” Because when it’s been a year that we haven’t really heard it, it ends up playing in our heads, that’s for sure ”.
“I should have been clearer”
Forget the New Year’s resolutions: Valérie Plante does “never” take them, she assures us.
Any regrets in the year that is ending? There again, the mayoress is requested. When confronted with the controversy surrounding her promise to hire 250 “new police officers”, she admits a mistake.
“Really, I should have been clearer,” she said. Media and observers understood that she had promised to create 250 police posts, while she had specified after the elections that she simply wanted the service to hire 250 officers – mainly for already existing positions. The opposition accuses him of having broken his first campaign promise.
I keep saying it: for me, for my team, in the financial package, from the start of the campaign, that’s what it suggests. There was no change of course. But clearly, I could have explained it differently.
Valerie Plante
In addition, his administration formalized at the end of the year the exclusion of elected opposition members from the City of Montreal’s audit committee. Opposition leader Aref Salem lamented that Mr.me Plante thus broke with a tradition and “lack of transparency”.
“I hear these concerns, but [dans] our party, from the start, we innovated by bringing more transparency ”, replied Mr.me Plant in interview. “The reality is that everything is open. That being said, with regard to this particular committee, it is quite technical. It’s based on the number of seats we have at the end, when we distribute the commissions. I hear the concern and I take it seriously, but for me, here, we are not in a situation of wanting to hide anything. We need the opposition. ”
More legitimacy?
Having obtained about 52% of the vote, Mayor Plante recognizes that this strong second mandate gives her more legitimacy. “I still had 51% during the first term, that’s not nothing, but it’s true that this time, I have an even higher second term, very well dug with my opponent. Once again, it shows that our political party is not a mistake, that it is there because it is appreciated and that people believe in the vision that we carry, ”she argues.
“The other political parties are listening. They cannot deny that 2 million people – that is the island of Montreal – are going in the same direction as the mayoress. Obviously, not everyone voted, but there is still this awareness, I think, ”she adds.
By 2022, she hopes to have two gifts from the provincial and federal levels of government.
From Quebec, she wants “more housing units”. “I need money to provide social housing,” she says, lamenting that several developers who wanted to integrate hundreds of social housing units into their real estate projects do not get the green light, for lack of adequate funding. from Quebec, as reported Press in early December.
“For the federal government, it’s really about legislating on firearms. It would be the best gift for future generations, that’s obvious. What I want is more sense of security in our neighborhoods. It’s really going to be a big hobbyhorse. We need long-lasting solutions, ”concludes the mayor.