Single mom shows her political savvy
Accidental MP earns respect with novel political strategy: Honesty
The first time Ruth Ellen Brosseau set foot in the federal riding of Berthier- Maskinonge in 2011, it was as if the circus had arrived, and she was the oddity everyone had to see.
She had just been elected without knocking on a single constituent’s door or putting up a single campaign poster, carried by the NDP wave that washed across Quebec. She was best known for flying off to Las Vegas mid- campaign to celebrate her birthday.
“I was nervous — I’m not going to lie — the first time,” Brosseau said in an interview last week. “It was the unknown.” She left a meeting at Louiseville city hall to find a crowd of constituents gathered outside. There were no pitchforks, but still, she was wary.
“Are they going to be happy to see me? And they were. They just wanted to get to know me,” she recalled. “They said, ‘ You know, we voted for change. You’re our change. Do us proud.’ ”
Four years later, Brosseau’s second campaign is in full swing, and the accidental MP has become well- liked in her riding northeast of Montreal.
“It was a surprise when she was elected, but I say we need more people like her in government,” said Gérard Jean, mayor of the town of Lanoraie at the southern end of the riding. “She is someone who, because of where she comes from, is really close to the people, who listens well.”
Even her Bloc Québécois opponent, Yves Perron, acknowledges she is popular. “She has a capital of sympathy because she came from so far back, and people appreciate that once she was elected, she tried to be present and do the job,” Mr. Perron said.
In 2011, Brosseau was a 27- yearold single mother and NDP member working as the assistant manager of a student pub in Ottawa when the party famously approached her about putting her name on a ballot.
“I wasn’t too sure, but finally I agreed because I wanted people in this area to be able to vote for the NDP,” she said.
“My son told me, ‘ I think you’re going to win, Mom,’ ” she said. “I’m like, ‘ Babe, I did not do a campaign. I didn’t have any signs. Maybe next time around I’ll run again and you could help door- knock with me, and we could do a real campaign.’ ”
By the end of the evening, her son Logan, 10 at the time, was proven to be prescient. She was elected with 40 per cent of the vote, nearly 6,000 votes ahead of the second place Bloc incumbent. “It was a great night, amazing, a life- changing night for me,” she said.
Brosseau rented a home in the riding and set to work meeting the people who had put their trust in the NDP and its leader at the time, the late Jack Layton. She said it never occurred to her to do anything but plunge right in. She had a base of French but need to improve it quickly.
“I just spent my whole summer meeting mayors and running all over the riding. A lot of people told me this was the first time they would have their federal member come meet them outside of election time,” she said. “I thought, how can you be a strong voice in Ottawa when you don’t know what’s going on on the ground? So that motivated me to keep going.”
Her love of the job was on display last week as she spent two hours visiting Louiseville Specialty Products Inc., a plant that employs about 75 people manufacturing specialty wood panelling. “You’ve got to see this,” she exclaimed at one point as she inspected a vat where wood pulp soaked in purple dye. “This is amazing.”
Asked whether Brosseau, 31, was a good MP, company president Rina McGuire said, “Oh my goodness, yes. You can call her at any time. She is very helpful and interested. We need politicians who understand what we are doing.”
People encountered in Louiseville’s Parc du Tricentanaire were equally positive in their views of their MP, although most declined to provide their full names. They appreciate that she has worked to improve her French, to the point at which sometimes in conversation in English she slips into French without thinking.
“She does a good job. She is present,” said Michel, a retired school custodian. “I’m confident she will be re- elected.” Monique, who had always voted for the Bloc until going NDP in 2011, credited Brosseau with putting Berthier- Maskinonge on the map.
For Perron, the Bloc candidate hoping to show 2011 was an aberration, his strategy is to avoid attacking the popular Brosseau and instead go after NDP policies. “I’m going to show people that Quebec’s interests have not been adequately defended since 2011,” he said.
Shipbuilding contracts that went to shipyards in Nova Scotia and British Columbia and not Quebec are one example, he said. Another is the controversial Energy East pipeline, which would cut through the riding. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has said the current process to review the pipeline is inadequate but he has stopped short of ruling the project out.
Brosseau promises to be a strong voice making sure the concerns of pipeline opponents are heard. “We have potato farmers who are scared because if there is some sort of disaster and it does leak, it’s going to damage their water,” she said.
The unprepared rookie who dodged reporters immediately after her election is a distant memory, and Brosseau has come to believe that she belongs in Parliament. “I guess my voice is important in the House of Commons because some people see that I’m not the cookiecutter politician,” she said. “I’m different. I try to be honest. I’m very honest with people. I think people respect that and like that.”