Bruno Marchand: the chess player with colorful espadrilles

Quebecers discovered Bruno Marchand six months ago. On November 7, 2021, during an election night with an unlikely scenario, this racing enthusiast caught up with his main rival at the finish line to gain access to the mayor of Quebec. The newspaper spoke to several friends and opponents of the new mayor, who will turn 50 today, to find out who is behind this great sportsman and chess champion in colorful sneakers.

A chess champion

“Bruno is always three steps ahead,” laughs Isabelle Genest. Ms. Genest, who rubbed shoulders with Bruno Marchand for several years and who succeeded him at the head of Centraide, is full of praise for the one she describes as a “mentor”.

His analogy borrowed from the world of chess – a game at which the new mayor excels – often came up in discussions with those close to Bruno Marchand. All praised his strategic side, his intelligence and his ability to anticipate. Transposed into politics, these qualities make it possible to prevent blows from adversaries and to know how to attack at the right time.

“He is a brilliant and strategic guy who is able to see two, three shots ahead. It was a strength for the manager, but it will also surely be for the politician who must make the link between complex situations, ”explains Benjamin Bussière, vice-president of operations at Centraide. The latter says he has formed “a professional couple” with Bruno Marchand over the past nine years, at the Quebec Association for Suicide Prevention (AQPS) and then at Centraide.

The main interested party, who participated in his youth in chess tournaments across Quebec, says this: “I don’t know if I have a three-step lead, but I’m working on that. People expect a leader to be able to read the environment and see the blows coming.”

To take care

Due to his training in social work and his professional experience, Bruno Marchand is centered on “care”, a concept which is very present in the Anglo-Saxon sphere and which could be translated as “taking care” or “solicitude”.

Victor Thibaudeau, who taught philosophy to the student Marchand twenty years ago, has vivid memories of this young man with whom he has always remained in contact. In 2014, the man who was also dean of the Faculty of Philosophy submitted Bruno Marchand’s candidacy for the prestigious “great graduates” award from Université Laval.

“His work has helped save hundreds of lives, and at the same time spared as many families and friends from a tragedy from which no one recovers”, wrote the professor to justify his request by referring to the work of Mr. Marchand at the AQPS.

Even today, Mr. Thibaudeau remains extremely complimentary about Bruno Marchand, a “good guy, positive, dynamic and who took care of people”. “In the student association, he was not in the games of power,” he recalls.

The downsides of the opponents

If the mayor’s friends draw a flattering portrait of him, his opponents at City Hall are obviously more nuanced. Claude Villeneuve maintains that Bruno Marchand “played a very dangerous game with the tram” by maintaining, in electoral campaign, that the project would not be done at any price. The leader of Quebec First also regretted the mayor’s “lack of vision” and called his program “light and peripheral”. According to him, “the real Bruno is less nice than what he tries to show us”, he relativizes.

For Jackie Smith, head of Transition Quebec, “half of those who voted in November for Bruno Marchand thought he was pro-tramway. The other 50% thought he was against it. It is clear that ambiguity is a strategy to confuse the population”. Describing the mayor as a “sweet talker”, she believes “he says [des] things that are just blurry enough [pour] that everyone finds there what he is looking for”. The councilor of Limoilou also judges that the desire for collaboration displayed by the mayor, “it is a bit of a way of extinguishing the opposition”.

“Collaboration” in all sauces

In the weeks following his arrival in office, Bruno Marchand repeated the word “collaboration” so much that journalists had fun counting how many times the term was used in press briefings. This displayed desire does not surprise his former employees, who describe him as “a team guy” and “a coach” capable of stepping aside to leave room for his assistants.

“Bruno is someone who has a lot of energy. He was able to have a 360 degree vision of the organization and to get involved in different spheres, and to develop a detailed knowledge of the organization. At the same time, he trusted his teams and knew how to accompany us,” describes Nancy Charland, vice-president of social development at Centraide.

His close friend Frédéric Desrosiers, who has been with him since their university days and who still regularly plays sports with him, calls him “humble”, “nuanced” and “thoughtful”.

“He wants the solution to come from broad consultations and not from a single leader. He wants to reach a broad consensus. There’s nothing narcissistic about it. He always had scruples about being in the foreground,” he says.

Workload

Before becoming the head of the City, Bruno Marchand suspected that his job would be extremely demanding. But the reality was even harsher. “There are things you can plan for, but there are a lot of things you can’t plan for, because it comes on the agenda unexpectedly. In a city, the amount of things [à gérer] is phenomenal, he describes. In six months, there has been almost one crisis per month.”

That said, on the eve of his 50th birthday, the mayor doesn’t want to come across as complaining. He assures that he continues to take the time to play sports (running and cycling, especially) and he does everything he can to have a family life as normal as possible. “I’m hugely privileged, unlike a lot of people,” he said. We weren’t rich, but my family gave me three meals a day. My parents loved me. I have precious and faithful friends. I have healthy children and I am healthy.”

The famous colored espadrilles

The mayor’s colorful shoes make a lot of noise. A parody account was even created on Twitter to pay tribute to them, in the wake of the municipal election.

Is it a well-rehearsed marketing operation? Former Centraide employees laugh heartily at this question and readily recall that their former CEO often arrived at the office with this same type of very showy sneakers on his feet. They also swear that the mayor also owns “normal” office shoes.