Voter of the day | “I am tired of divisive speeches”

Are you following the election campaign?

It’s a small village, Saint-Irénée. I follow the campaign by asking questions of my fellow citizens, because there are no signs. For now, there is just one candidate. I ask people in my village who know the person in question. We are waiting to see if there will be other applications. We find out information by talking to neighbors and other people in the village. There are two regional media, Charlevoisien and CIHO-FM, but they will focus mainly on the largest villages. Saint-Irénée, for the moment, is flying below the radar.

What issue concerns you most?

I am a fervent promoter of a project that does not exist, which would consist of replacing the rails that connect Quebec and La Malbaie with a cycle path. I think that this project would change the face of the region forever, in a very positive perspective, and that it would attract people from all over the world, because the cycle path would follow along the river. So I talk about it everywhere. I wrote open letters. Every time I speak with an elected official, I try to make my points.

Are you satisfied with the work of your outgoing mayor?

Odile Comeau was also prefect of the MRC of Charlevoix-Est. She did some great things for the village of Saint-Irénée. We have a beautiful beach that overlooks the river. It’s a beautiful place. And then, she carried out a project which developed the entire edge of the beach, which is next to the railway tracks. It really changed the village. It gave him a very nice look. She decided to retire. I think she delivered the projects she wanted to deliver.

What do you think about elections by acclamation?

I understand that people don’t necessarily want to introduce themselves, because everyone has so much stuff going on at the same time. We don’t necessarily have the time to take on an additional part-time mayor position, because here, the village does not have the means to pay a full-time mayor. It is often when we have some form of opposition that we are forced to compromise and come up with new ideas. A lack of candidates means that there may be fewer ideas put forward. What is the solution to this? I don’t know… give mayors better pay? Find better conditions? We also look at what is happening in Longueuil, in Montreal, where people are being insulted on social networks. We say to ourselves: “Even if I am in a small village, do I want to experience this kind of denigration? »

Do you feel a certain electoral fatigue?

I don’t think I have electoral fatigue as much as I have fatigue from divisive speeches. I no longer see, like when I was much younger, unifying speeches, social projects. It’s a lot of “us versus the rest” or “us versus a minority.”

For the sake of clarity and conciseness, the testimony has been slightly edited.