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Montreal election: Valérie Plante banks on her 'human' touch

Even her opponents say she's likeable and principled. But does she have what it takes to become Montreal's first female mayor?

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A man sitting on a park bench holding onto a dog leash asks softly and with uncertainty in his voice: “Valérie Plante?”  

The voice is so low that the person whose name he’s calling almost walks past without noticing because she and her coterie are busy chatting as they cut across the park.

“I heard my name,” Plante suddenly says to her two companions who are helping her campaign in Ville-Marie borough. She immediately stops, turns and makes a beeline for the man and his Boston Terrier.

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The man is clearly impressed that he has recognized the woman whose face is on posters zip-tied to poles all around the city.

After a handshake and introduction, Plante asks the man a battery of questions — where does he live, what kind of dog does he have and what’s his opinion on some of the issues he raises about municipal administration, including a recent and controversial bylaw that bans certain breeds of dogs.

“Things must change. We must change mayors anyway,” the man finally says, indicating that the candidate has clinched his vote. 

During this impromptu whistle stop, as with every other stop on the hustings this day, Plante asks most of the questions and listens with apparent interest.

Projet Montréal leader Valérie Plante meets Sarah St-Pierre, husband Albert Afari and their son Eli while campaigning in Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. Those who know Plante say her interest in people and their stories is genuine.
Projet Montréal leader Valérie Plante meets Sarah St-Pierre, husband Albert Afari and their son Eli while campaigning in Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. Those who know Plante say her interest in people and their stories is genuine. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

It is Plante the anthropologist talking and probing, although it is easy to confuse that with Plante the politician. 

The two seem indistinguishable in the Projet Montréal party leader, who is running as the main challenger for mayor of Montreal against incumbent Denis Coderre in the municipal election on Nov. 5.

With a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, a master’s in museum studies and a career working for community organizations that help poor and marginalized people, Plante’s background in studying humans and what brings them together is unusual in politics.  

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Those who know Plante say that what drives her anthropological side, with its interest in people, is genuine.

“The Valérie you see on television is the same person I see at the door and at dinner parties,” says Manon Coutu, a friend since childhood. “What’s most striking about her is her authenticity.

“She cares profoundly about human beings, where people come from, who they are. She’s a great listener because she has a real interest.”

Young Valérie Plante receives her first bicycle from her mother, Constance Lamarre.
Young Valérie Plante receives her first bicycle from her mother, Constance Lamarre. Photo by Photo courtesy of Valérie Plante

Coutu says she recalls a curious and self-confident girl with pigtails and bangs and an easy smile whom she befriended when her family moved onto the same street as Plante’s family in Rouyn-Noranda, in the Abitibi region 600 kilometres northwest of Montreal, when they were both five years old. They were born in 1974.

“Today, what’s so fascinating is that I have the impression that the qualities that make her the woman she is were there when she was a girl,” Coutu says, adding that her friend had a strong sense of her identity even as a youngster.

“She’s smiling, joyful, full of energy, very dynamic. She’s fun to be with.”

Projet Montréal, which elected Plante its leader in December, is gambling on Plante’s “human” touch to give it a breakthrough in its fourth general election since its founding in 2004.

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And while she started the campaign with almost no public profile, even her opponents now grudgingly acknowledge that her communication skills and pleasant personality are making her known. 

But while her opponents agree that Plante is likeable and principled, they question her mettle and her relative lack of political experience.

Plante was elected to city council in 2013, beating veteran Louise Harel for the council seat in Ste-Marie district in Ville-Marie borough, where Plante had worked with community groups.

Valérie Plante celebrates as she is elected to city council in 2013, beating veteran Louise Harel for the seat in the Ste-Marie district of Ville-Marie borough.
Valérie Plante celebrates as she is elected to city council in 2013, beating veteran Louise Harel for the seat in the Ste-Marie district of Ville-Marie borough. Photo by Allen McInnis /Montreal Gazette

While her party has voted against the Coderre administration’s annual city operating budgets, citing cuts to borough financing and creeping centralization of borough services, Plante has voted in favour of every Ville-Marie borough budget tabled by Coderre, who as mayor of Montreal is automatically mayor of the borough and sits with Plante on the borough council.

Plante dismisses the criticism of her experience as sexism.

“I started at the same time as my adversary,” she says of Coderre, who was a federal MP but only entered municipal politics in 2013 as well.

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In fact, Plante says she probably now has more experience dealing with municipal matters than her opponent because as a councillor she is in closer contact with constituents and their problems.

As for voting in favour of the borough budget, Plante contends her decision has been based on it offering project funding for her district and on her willingness to compromise when a compromise seems warranted.

Her opponents also question whether her party is too close to Québec Solidaire because the two parties have aligned on a number of policy pronouncements.

For example, Plante pledged in late September that her party, if elected, would hold a referendum before allowing any public money to be spent to bring professional baseball to Montreal; Québec Solidaire tabled a motion in the National Assembly the next day opposing the use of public funds to bring back the Expos.

Plante counters that her party, with its 5,000 members, including federalists, doesn’t need to rely on a provincial party, and it independently develops its positions.

Montreal mayoral candidate Valérie Plante of Projet Montréal is shown with Sue Montgomery, the party’s mayoral candidate for Côte-des-Neiges—N.D.G. borough.
Montreal mayoral candidate Valérie Plante of Projet Montréal is shown with Sue Montgomery, the party’s mayoral candidate for Côte-des-Neiges—N.D.G. borough. Photo by Christinne Muschi /Montreal Gazette

No area is off-limits when Plante is asked questions, even on the thorny issue of nationalism.

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For the record, Plante says she doesn’t identify herself as a separatist, though she believes in the right to self-determination.

She also works with national organizations, notably the Broadbent Institute, a left-of-centre think-tank launched by former federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent. Plante joined the board three years ago.

Broadbent says Plante shows compassion for ordinary people and an interest in creating a more just society.

He points to her position in favour of creating a living wage in Montreal as an example of her concern for average people.

“She’s exuberant, imaginative and thoroughly pleasant to work with,” Broadbent says. 

Plante has a collaborative leadership style, he adds, likening it to that of Gro Harlem Brundtland, the first woman to be prime minister of Norway. 

“I think Valérie has that kind of capacity for reaching out and pulling in as opposed to imposing or issuing directives from on high,” Broadbent says.

“She’s exuberant, imaginative and thoroughly pleasant to work with,” former federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent says of Valérie Plante.
“She’s exuberant, imaginative and thoroughly pleasant to work with,” former federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent says of Valérie Plante. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

Plante is the product of her parents, Constance Lamarre, a feminist who was a homemaker before returning to school to study administration when Plante and her older sister were teenagers, and Gaétan Plante, a traveling salesman who seemingly opened the door to the universe for his daughter by taking her on trips around Abitibi and to Montreal.

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Both parents are helping out on her campaign.

It was a family of modest means, and her father supported them by selling knick-knacks and greeting cards from a long blue school bus he had converted into a mobile store in the years before dollar stores existed in Quebec. 

“When I was young, I would spend so much time in that bus,” Plante says.

The elder Plante’s ease in connecting with customers left a lasting impression on his daughter.

“I took that from him,” Plante says. “The way that you meet people and you get invited into their bubble. That’s probably the difference between me and Mr. Coderre. I don’t force (myself into) other people’s bubbles. I’m good at getting invited into their bubbles.”

Once a month, Plante’s father would drive seven hours to Montreal to re-stock, and would bring his daughter.

“Most of the time, we would go to La Ronde,” Plante recalls. “So it was a special time with my dad. I loved the big city. I would take the métro, and it was so much fun.

“Though I was in Abitibi, Montreal was something special for me. And I knew I would come to the big city one day.”

Though no one in her family spoke any English, Plante says she decided to learn the language when she was 14. Her parents allowed her to board with a family in North Bay, Ont., for a year while she attended Grade 10 in an English high school. 

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Valérie Plante joins the crowds at Atwater Market. A native of Rouyn-Noranda, she settled in Montreal at age 20 to study anthropology at Université de Montréal.
Valérie Plante joins the crowds at Atwater Market. A native of Rouyn-Noranda, she settled in Montreal at age 20 to study anthropology at Université de Montréal. Photo by Christinne Muschi /MONTREAL GAZETTE

Plante’s parents separated when she was 14, and she would spend the latter part of her teens in Trois-Rivières. 

A further sign of Plante’s independence: she started working at the age of 12. 

She began with babysitting and, at 14, before leaving for Ontario, got a job washing dishes at 6 a.m. in a restaurant where her father knew the owner. 

At 17, she pumped gas at a gas station.

“I’ve had so many jobs,” Plante says. She has sold ice cream, and at 19 was a tour guide at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France. 

Landing the tour guide job allowed her to buy her first plane ticket, which took her on a three-month backpack tour — alone — of Europe.

Later, there were journeys to South America and Central America.

Plante settled in Montreal at 20, when she entered the Université de Montréal’s anthropology department.

As she would discover, the department was “very activist,” she says, and “very political.”

As a young girl in Rouyn-Noranda, she would get her mother to take her to seniors’ residences to do volunteer work. However, as an undergrad, she developed critical thinking on social inequalities, and that married with her desire to help others.

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Valérie Plante chats with Tania Tomic, a former resident and now a volunteer, at the Maison du Pharillon drug and alcohol treatment centre in Montreal. Plante worked for community organizations before entering politics.
Valérie Plante chats with Tania Tomic, a former resident and now a volunteer, at the Maison du Pharillon drug and alcohol treatment centre in Montreal. Plante worked for community organizations before entering politics. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

It was during her undergrad days that she met her future husband, Pierre-Antoine Harvey, now an economist with the Centrale des syndicats du Québec teachers union. They met during a protest march.

The couple live in Rosemont with their two sons, age 11 and 14. The boys attended protests with their mother when they were in strollers. 

Her degree in museum studies is a reflection of her passion for culture and art, she says. “When I’m stressed and need a break, I go to the museum.”

She’s also a voracious reader and loves contemporary dance along with running, swimming and cycling.

Plante says she never joined a political party before being approached by Projet Montréal to run in the last election because she had a disdain for the top-down nature of most parties.

Tatiana Fraser, who co-founded Girls Action Foundation, a national network of organizations working to advance girls’ equality, hired Plante as director of communications 12 years ago.

Plante’s move into politics after showing her leadership ability at the foundation “didn’t surprise me at all,” Fraser says. 

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“Seeing her in action with our organization, she was always a strong leader and always brought a lot of energy. I think (politics) was a natural next step for her.”

It isn’t lost on supporters that if elected, Plante would be the first female mayor of Montreal. It’s one more point in her favour, Fraser says.

“She brings a leadership style that is of the day and is needed,” she says. “I’m very hopeful because I think it’s time for Montreal to walk into the moment.”

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