What does the first female Mayor of Gatineau’s resignation warn Quebec about its politics?

Grace Richards and Taylor Clark

Gatineau’s first female mayor France Bélisle made headlines when elected in 2021 and then reappeared in the media earlier this year when Bélisle announced her resignation with 20 months left in her mandate. 

But Bélisle’s landmark ascent and consequent descent from power is not an atypical occurrence in the realm of Quebec politics, especially for women. 

Since the last municipal election in Quebec, nearly 800 municipal officials of 8,000 Quebec politicians vacated their positions, culminating in an unprecedented crisis in the province’s political arena. 

In the wake of Bélisle’s resignation, deputy mayor Isabelle N. Miron and mayoral candidates Maude Marquis-Bissonnette and Olive Kamanyana weigh in on how Gatineau can keep women in politics. 

Miron never intended to be a politician. While completing her bachelor’s degree in Politics, she became fascinated by the lack of female candidates, and the compromises women who did enter politics were making. 

“I came to Outaouais to work for a female MP on Parliament Hill. She was one of the first women in her party to be elected. So, she really had a different vision, I would say. She really believed that as a woman, you had to become one of the guys. I thought this couldn’t be true. It didn’t have to be this way. I really thought we needed to make changes.” 

But have there been changes? The most recent report of elected officials’ concerns by the Fédération québécoise des municipalités continued to paint a dark picture for politicians following the release of its 2017 report, which illustrated the disparity women in politics face when compared to their male counterparts. 

The data collected demonstrated the gap between men and women may have lessened since its 2017 report, but this could have been the result of men recognizing more difficulties rather than an advancement in the situation. 

Maude Marquis-Bissonnette, the runner-up in the 2021 mayoral election and current Action-Gatineau candidate, believes the lack of female role figures in Quebec’s political past is partly to blame for the difficulties plaguing female politicians. 

“There are still few female mayors and female politicians. We see women even less in places of power compared to men. This lack of role models certainly makes it more difficult for women, when they break the glass ceiling, to reach positions of power.” 

The lack of female role models in Quebec’s political landscape was also recognized as an issue by councillor and independent mayoral candidate Olive Kamanyana. She discussed how creating a more diverse political environment starts with women running for office and giving women the tools to run for office.

“First of all, as a woman, you have to impose yourself, demonstrate that you have the capabilities, that you have the skills. You have to prove it. And as a racialized person or an Indigenous person, we have to demonstrate it even more, a lot more, a lot more than men, in fact, because in our political world, it is obvious that a man is going to present himself; he is not going to be questioned a lot,” said Kamanyana. 

“It is a fact that women need to be supported to enter the job market fully. That is to say that they must not only be found in offices, in administrative tasks, they must also be found in governance … I am a woman, but also a black woman. So, it's not nothing, it's very important that I run for politics, that I run for the governance positions that I described earlier.”

In collaboration with AGIR Outaouais, the Groupe Femmes, Politique et Démocratie organized a reflection project on parity with 20 citizens, aspiring candidates, elected and former officials within Outaouais. According to the progress recorded over the four years, the organization predicted parity would only be achieved by 2050. 

To see more women in municipal councils before 2050, the participants emphasized the importance of making the constitution of a joint municipal council compulsory. This could be achieved by reserving half of the councillor positions for women “which would send a powerful message that (women) have their place within the governance of their municipality.”

While the future of Quebec’s political landscape is uncertain, the need for ensuring women are part of that future is clear.