If the inability to share news on Meta limits press freedom, it also limits comments. This certainly explains why we saw slightly fewer comments like “She’s not strong enough,” that it’s “a sign of weakness,” “She doesn’t know how to handle herself,” and other derogatory comments. As we saw when former councilor Vincent Boutin withdrew due to exhaustion.
We don’t see them, but they have to say it anyway. I received some in my email inbox. “You see clearly,” someone wrote to me. No, I do not understand.
When a doctor forces us to rest, it’s usually because we’ve been doing too much for too long. But beyond that, it’s speculation to speculate about the exact reasons.
Exhaustion can occur for several reasons, but we can observe that politics has very bad patterns, as they say in good French.
It’s a responsibility that depends heavily on vocation – a situation in which it’s all too easy to not count the hours and work the equivalent of two full-time jobs. Politics is also an environment where you never see the end of the stack of files – and many of them are a priority – which pushes you to do a lot. Without forgetting that calling often rhymes with challenging your whole heart, so many strong emotions – good and bad.
Being elected also means that people have expectations and that others will be very critical. The public pressure is enormous. And even people who are neither for nor against will still have the opportunity to comment on actions and decisions. Because it is a public task.
An official who makes a mistake, except for his colleagues and management, no one else will know about it. An elected official who makes a mistake, everyone knows it, and not only does everyone know it, but everyone will point it out, comment on it, speculate and play platform manager. In addition to people like me who are paid to post political commentary on forums that are read or heard by thousands of people.
The pressure on the shoulders of elected officials is enormous, whether in a local council, a town hall or a national assembly.
Not to mention the insults, insults, attacks and threats that continue to increase.
A worrying movement
I invite you to take a step back. The mayor of Sherbrooke’s temporary withdrawal is not an isolated incident. In Sherbrooke alone, this is at least the third case in recent years, following Luc Fortin when he was a Liberal MP and Vincent Boutin when he was a councillor.
Additionally, we have seen several mayors resign from office in 2023. In Wickham, in April, a second mayor announced his resignation within a few weeks.
I didn’t do much research, my list is far from complete, but I was also able to quickly see that all of these towns had a municipal council: Godbout, Sept-Îles, Desbiens, Marieville, Saint-Benjamin, Saint-Sévère, Sainte-Lucie -des-Laurentides, Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover, Saint-Thècle, Saint-Albert, Saint-Louis-de-Blanford, Saint-Edmond-les-Plaines, Cloridorme, Rapide-Danseur, Plaisance, Petite-Vallée, Maricourt , Stukely-Sud and L’Île-Bizard-Sainte-Geneviève (here he is district mayor). In Méchins, the mayor and almost the entire council resigned en bloc. Only one local council remained.
As I said, my list certainly doesn’t claim to be complete and just based on what I’ve written down, it’s almost like resigning every two weeks.
When can one speak of a movement?
These include some cases of health problems or abuse of office, but two reasons are often given as explanations for departures: threats and violent statements from the public and then the compatibility of work and family.
Well, family reasons often hide other reasons, but it’s often a polite way of saying that the workload is too heavy and ultimately affects family life. Several ministers, men and women, and several mayors spoke of sacrificing the time they spent with their loved ones for politics.
Councilwoman Laure Letarte-Lavoie is right to want to address this. She’s not the first. Everyone has the right to a quality life outside of their duties, whether they are a mayor, prime minister, cashier, saleswoman, journalist, janitor, waitress or manager.
In a society that is increasingly committed to a balanced distribution of burdens between parents, it is currently too often the spouse who has to bear everything when their partner goes into politics. But why do we think this is normal?
The main reason is historical. For a long time only men could be elected, at a time when there were no fathers. But that no longer makes sense today. Then single people also have the right to a private life outside of work.
Why should an elected person devote their entire life to politics? It’s not healthy for anyone to work a 70-hour week.
However, we have this expectation somewhat, unconsciously. As if someone who wants an office has to sacrifice everything for that office.
As if people were saying to each other: “Did you want to be mayor (or president or minister)?” Take responsibility! »
The violence of the comments has its origins in much the same vein. Too often we hear that elected officials simply don’t show up when they are unable to handle criticism. Nice excuse.
There is already a difference between criticizing and questioning politics and insulting or threatening people.
As a society, it is time to seriously think about what we want to see as a democracy. The alarm has been ringing for a long time. We lose a lot when we exhaust mayors, discourage motivated people, and denigrate and threaten people who are just trying to represent others.
Politics is the art of finding ways to live together and not argue to the point where you would rather threaten an entire system for your ego than find ways to advance the system, as seen in the United States.
If the climate stops people from taking on their management roles, who will stay? People seeking power for themselves?
In order for politics to care about the population, society has to care about the people who go there.
Let’s take care of ourselves.
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