Several times in Quebec, columnists and analysts have predicted the political death of Bruno Marchand. Until now, the mayor of the capital has always found a way to beat the odds. As the electoral battle approaches next November, Bruno Marchand, whom many intended for a single mandate a year ago, feels better armed than ever to conquer his second.
The year started off badly, however, with a tram on life support and political relevance to be rebuilt. It ends with a resurrected tramway project and a renewed ambition: nothing less than building a city capable of relieving Quebec's failing health system.
“It’s going very well. It’s going really well,” says the elected official straight away in an interview with Duty. Providence did not wait until December 25 to be generous to the mayor of Quebec.
In 2024, the capital has exceeded its target for social and affordable housing. The “unpacking” of peaceful streets seems to have calmed the discontent that they had initially aroused. This month, a numerical analysis showed that the Sainte-Foy road cycle path, controversial and likely to lead to a commercial massacre according to its detractors, has on the contrary promoted traffic and sales.
“It was my political death,” the mayor remembers. It was going to be chaos, people were no longer going to turn left, we would have to leave on Friday to arrive at work on Monday because we would no longer make it. There, you realize that no: the cycle path is overused. There is less noise. Pedestrians increased by 41%. That works. It works. »
A resurrected tram
On Monday, he sat alongside the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, and the CEO of CDPQ Infra, Jean-Marc Arbaud, to present the agreement which gives a green light written in black and white to a tramway which has become , over the course of reversals, a chimera, even a laughing stock.
The scene of this press conference was almost a miracle. Barely a year ago, the mayor nicknamed “Captain Tramway” lost control of the matter, and even his close entourage believed the project to be dead and buried. Once again, people were selling it short — like with the adoption of the registration tax. Thirteen months later, Bruno Marchand, with a relaxed look and a smile on his lips, has more confidence than ever in the future, both of his city and of his political star.
“The tide has started to turn,” observes the mayor of Quebec – and visibly, in his eyes, it is now blowing in his favor. The tram that he has defended since day one seemed increasingly heavy to carry. It now represents, in his opinion, one of his best electoral selling points.
“We are talking, in these times of economic uncertainty, about an arrival of 12 billion dollars in private and public capital in a city,” calculates the mayor. It's the best deal that could happen to us: it's more than La Romaine! » Difficult for the competition, he explains, to campaign against such a jackpot.
“This time it’s the right one”
Of course, skepticism remains great towards a tramway mentioned almost daily in the local press, but which persists in returning to square one.
If the Minister of Transport has the slightest enthusiasm for the tramway, she persists in showing it discreetly. Geneviève Guilbault, although accustomed to exposing her slightest feats of arms on social networks, preferred to remain silent on Monday's announcement: her publication of the day instead showed her in the trailer of a van loaded with foodstuffs harvested during the ” guignolée of the MP”, without saying a word about the agreement announced in the morning which nevertheless entrusted the largest project in the history of the national capital to CDPQ Infra.
For Bruno Marchand, it does not matter to him if the tram seems far from being a desire for the person responsible for Transport in Quebec or if the leader of the opposition in Ottawa, Pierre Poilievre, is getting a little closer to power with the farm every day. intention of not taking “a penny” out of federal coffers to achieve it.
The mayor is convinced that “this time is the right one”.
“I have confidence because the Fund is not in the wake of politics. I'm not saying this against the government, but we need to depoliticize these issues. »
In his eyes, politicians have the constant temptation to wait for a problem to arise before tackling it head on. “A majority of people then say: 'We have to do something, save us', and the politician finds himself legitimized in his action. It's basically much easier to convince someone to change their diet once they've had a heart attack, the mayor explains. It's harder to persuade him before his problems arise. »
The city to save the health system
He believes that his action in Quebec is part of this vision. “Having an eye on the long term means having the ability to say that what needs to change to improve the future is now the time to correct it. It's not the easiest choice because we're not responding to an emergency, but we're changing people's lives. »
Bruno Marchand is certain that his vision of the city will make it possible to achieve what seems impossible: to alleviate a health system bent under its own weight.
“When we clear snow from a sidewalk, it allows seniors to get out and break their isolation. When we create lively, local commercial streets, it encourages people to walk and get to know their neighbors. When we create a cycle path, it pushes people to choose the bike rather than the car and it conditions them to get in shape. »
“Cities have the power to save the health issue in Quebec, believes the mayor, by doing all this work of prevention and adaptation of the territory so that the entry of sick people into a pipeline that pumps stops. billions and which can no longer treat everyone. Of the 30 years of life expectancy gained between 1900 and 2000 in the West, 8 are attributable to the health system. The others relate solely to the environment and living conditions. »
Does the mayor have the motivation to take on this challenge in a second term? A flight of several minutes on the unsuspected benefits of sidewalk projections clearly indicates yes.
With the election in his sights, Bruno Marchand displays the confidence of someone who now has a more extensive arsenal to win it. He had been fighting a lot of arguments for three years. The end of 2024 brought him a gift that many did not suspect: results.
