CORNWALL’S NEW MAYOR
‘A message to little girls’
Three days after she was elected mayor of Cornwall, Bernadette Clément admits she’s still coming to grips with the attention she’s been getting.
“It feels a bit odd,” she laughs over the phone from the SDG Legal Clinic where she’s organizing her move to city hall.
“Yes, I’m a woman, a francophone and a woman of colour, but, seriously, my heritage has never been much of an issue here.”
It has, nonetheless, struck positive chords outside the Seaway City, judging by the press and social media attention she’s been receiving since election night.
There have been female mayors in Canada, notably Ottawa’s redoubtable Charlotte Whitton (famed for her quote: “Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.”) There have been black female mayors, such as Daurene Lewis, elected in Annapolis Royal, N.S., in 1984, although Clément is believed to be the first in that category in Ontario.
But a mayor who is female, black and francophone? Not so many.
And what does it matter, Clément found herself wondering this week.
“It’s a bit surprising to me to be talking about it. We all have our own heritage and background.”
But she says she gradually began to see others’ interest and to feel a sense of responsibility to more than her new job leading Cornwall.
“If (her election) is a message to little girls, and little girls of colour, of what women do, that would be pretty nice.”
One of the mayor-elect’s central campaign themes was to make significant progress on the waterfront portlands project, a redevelopment plan for Cornwall’s historic port area on the St. Lawrence River. She also plans to meet early in her term with Grand Chief Abram Benedict and the rest of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne to discuss common goals, she says.
Meanwhile, one election night photo that enjoyed wide circulation on social media was of Clément, 53, dancing with her 96-year-old father, Hubert Clément.
Her father, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, was a longtime teacher at Montreal’s Marymount high school where he met Bernadette’s mother, a Franco-Manitoban teacher with the name Euphrasie (from the Greek for “good cheer”). Bernadette grew up in the city’s Côte-St-Luc area with a brother and sister.
She moved to Ottawa in the 1980s and obtained her civil and common law degrees from uOttawa before being called to the bar and articling at Perley-Robertson Hill & McDougall LLP.
“Perley-Robertson was wonderful, but I knew I wanted to do legal aid, to help people” she says.
She spotted a job posting in Cornwall and, with no car, jumped on a bus. She nailed the job.
“It was pretty quick. I was made to feel like I belonged here.”
She says she was struck almost immediately by Cornwall’s “diverse DNA.”
“This isn’t new,” she said, noting the city has had a strong francophone presence for more than a century due to its proximity to the Quebec boundary. She also noted the city’s neighbours, the Mohawks of Akwesasne.
“Cornwall had one of Canada’s first Jewish mayors, Mayor (Aaron) Horovitz. … There’s a park and museum named after him.”
She’s been a deeply involved Cornwallite ever since, teaching at St. Lawrence College and sitting on a number of local boards. She was first elected to council 12 years ago and has served three terms. She also made two unsuccessful tries as a federal Liberal candidate.
Her decision to run for mayor was difficult, she says, but she feels her background — legal and cultural — gives her valuable insight into the needs of a broad spectrum of the community.
She campaigned as an agent of change and that’s going to be the theme when she assumes the duties of her new office at the end of November, she says.
Clément says she plans to begin her term trying to shake up how the Cornwall city council works, from how it debates and makes decisions to how it interacts with the public.
“The people of Cornwall have given me a strong mandate (and) one of the first things I plan to do some team-building (on council), right from the start.
“I’m very interested in people having different opinions and disagreeing,” she said. But council has, in the past, had 10 councillors “heading in 10 different directions,” a condition she’s determined to change.
“It’s not just one mayor that does this, it’s a team that does it, and a community that does it.”
I’m a woman, a francophone and a woman of colour, but, seriously, my heritage has never been much of an issue here.