Régis Labeaume

Longtime mayor Labeaume pulls no punches in memoirs

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

True to his reputation as a straight-shooting politician with a healthy blend of hubris and humility, former Quebec City mayor Régis Labeaume’s memoirs pull no punches and tell his almost rags-to-riches story with stark honesty and humour.

Labeaume had no interest in writing his memoirs when he retired from City Hall in 2021. He changed his mind in 2023, and contacted Journal de Québec journalist Karine Gagnon, who had pitched the idea two years earlier. The condition, Labeaume said, was that it be in a format “outside the box.”

That it is, with a collection of caricatures from cartoonist Yannick Lemay (YGreck) and testimonials from a wide range of characters from Labeaume’s life and career, including Jean Charest, Pierre Karl Péladeau, Serge Fiori and Justin Trudeau. There are also several dozen priceless photos of Labeaume from his youth and career. A particularly moving picture taken during the 400th anniversary celebrations in 2008 features Labeaume with his mayoral predecessors Jean- Paul L’Allier, Jean Pelletier and Gilles Lamontagne. All have since died, as has Andrée Boucher, whose sudden passing in 2007 opened the door for Labeaume to run for City Hall. Each of the 25 cleverly named chapters begins with a brief reflection penned by Labeaume before Gagnon, who covered all 14 of the Labeaume years, takes over and fills in the details of the story.

The former mayor has acknowledged that it wasn’t an easy process. In an interview with the QCT following the book’s launch in April at Le Diamant theatre – one of the many projects built on the mayor’s watch – Labeaume talked about how digging into the personal elements of the memoirs made for “two or three weeks of bad times.”

As for his time at City Hall, “it was a good summary of what we’d done and I had the chance to explain some things that were not clear.”

Among those many items were the discussions and events behind the staging of the 400th anniversary celebrations, the road to the building – under budget – of the Videotron Centre, and of course, the tramway project, which has become Labeaume’s successor Bruno Marchand’s nightmare.

Labeaume is blunt in recounting his relationship with the Coalition Avenir Québec government and its handling of the tramway and third link projects. In his preface to that chapter, he writes, “I can hear or read the political ‘observers’ who have their headlines ready – ‘Labeaume takes revenge on the CAQ!’ We’re all in, folks! I don’t know how I could claim to be happy with my relationship with François Legault’s government. The truth is, it went very badly, period.”

“Need I remind you that the CAQ declared its agreement with the Quebec City tramway project during the 2018 election, which it won? As for the third link, history will remember it as a major political hoax. A case to document for political science courses in the coming years, the epitome of political cynicism.”

As for Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, who has been the CAQ government’s point person on the tramway and third link, Labeaume recalled with bitterness the minister’s comment when he announced his retirement: “It’s going to feel good,” which became the headline in Le Soleil.

“This is the worst insult of my political life and of my 14 years as mayor, coming from a woman who had only been appointed minister for two years and who clearly thought she was above it all. All she could think of to do was throw up on me.”

Labeaume said he is not optimistic about the tramway, although the election of Mark Carney as prime minister might help. “The CAQ never wanted the tramway,” he said, because caucus members from the region oppose it. “With this provincial government, we won’t get any tramway here.”

In the book, Labeaume, who was active in politics with the Parti Québécois before em- barking on a business career, opens up about his views on Quebec sovereignty. Although his political allegiance was well known, he was highly dis- creet about it during his years at City Hall.

While he would still like to see an independent Quebec, Labeaume recognizes the province has changed irreversibly and must adapt to these changes inclusively. “We have no choice but to take into account Quebec’s new demographic reality when thinking about its future if we don’t want to end up with a socially and ethnically divided Quebec. And as for me, my choice is made: I would never want to live in that kind of society.”

Now, Labeaume said in conversation, “I’m a political orphan. I’m more humanist than sovereigntist.”

As for his proudest achievement over 14 years as mayor, Labeaume said it was putting the city’s financial house in order. To that, one might add, particularly after the smashing success of the 400th anniversary celebration, making the city “the place to be” and giving the diminutive mayor confidence to think big.