Claire Samson and green plants

Green plants. Here we are. At her last press conference at the National Assembly, on Thursday June 9, Claire Samson, 67, surprised many by declaring: Two years without working hard green plant MPs like me. Working as an MP in my riding office, I liked it. But of all the jobs I have – and with me when I was 17 and I was a clerk, or when I was a waitress at Da Giovanni – working as a member of the National Assembly, here it is work where I have worked the least in my life.

In a neatly decorated apartment on the east end of Montreal, I met Claire Samson, who was happy to retire. The first member of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) by Éric Duhaime, first elected under the banner of CAQ in 2014, was relieved to leave a world where he felt crowded. There is not much room for real debates of ideas. Almost everything is scripted in advancehe believes.

When Claire Samson was a child, Claire Samson was fascinated by a deaf couple who boarded the bus with her. I found it very good so I took courses to become an interpreter. She now proposed to volunteer and dedicate herself to this quiet translation that she loved so dearly.

In the meantime, can he translate what he means: deputies green plants?

I’ll tell you a great anecdotesaid Samson. Marguerite Blais, Minister of Seniors, introduced a bill on carers. We are part of the same political group. In the parliamentary committee, I sat next to him. I have prepared myself, I have read the bill and I have reviewed the other laws that its bill has changed and I have questions for my colleague. However, a girl came, I didn’t even know her and she handed me a piece of paper and whispered in my ear: “Here are the questions you should ask the minister in the parliamentary committee”. I, as a legislator, I find it insulting, this pantomime of the political game.

Claire Samson also mentioned the relationship with journalists in Parliament: The communication team gives us our lines. They tell us what to say to the journalists and make us rehearse while we make the actors rehearse the texts.she quips.

Me, I did press relations for a large part of my professional life, I’m not afraid of that, journalists. Samson stopped, looked at me and added with a smile: It must be said that the journalists from the Hill are a species. All parties have spin doctor [manipulateurs de l’information] that they hung in the corridor to give them the news of the day or what they wanted to see come outhe says.

Claire Samson lit another cigarette. Photographer Ivanoh Demers also offers to do his portrait while he is smoking. It must have been at least 20 years since I last took a picture of a smoker.it said to him.

True, no one dares to be immortalized with a cigarette in their mouth, but Claire Samson, 67, assumes-in fact, she thinks of everything and says it with a sincerity that is astonishing, even explosive, in our political landscape.

In Claire, there is no gray area. It is black or white. It’s set no nonsensesummarizes Natasha Barnes-Crépeau who was his political attaché for more than three years, when Samson was still a member of CAQ.

A colorful character, therefore, and caused a lot of ink to flow.

In the spring of 2021, the 67-year-old woman already knows that her stay in politics will end. He underwent a third brain surgery to prevent pituitary cancer. I decided to leave politics. I want to live a little new fart in anxiety. Brain surgery is not, for example, like having an ingrown toenail.

He was contacted by Adrien Pouliot, former owner of the television network TQS (now Noovo) whom he worked for when he was the station’s big boss in the mid-1990s. The man led the Conservative Party of Quebec from 2013 to 2021 before giving way to Éric Duhaime last year. Like everyone else, Claire Samson knows this Quebec radio star by name, who loves, Pouliot explains to Samson, to get to know her. Éric was very clear, he wanted to get a deputy who would give him access to the National Assembly.

Claire Samson talks about three great encounters, including one where Eric Duhaime’s dog was there. Mia is a very friendly pitbull and my cat Coucoune loves her very much, said the animal -loving MP. Claire Samson also owns two horses and teaches riding to hearing-impaired children every Saturday. But it wasn’t just their love of animals that convinced Samson to change the stable …

The rest of the story is known. In mid -June 2021, Claire Samson was expelled from the caucus of CAQ for making a donation to Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party. The next day, he officially joined this party, so Duhaime was allowed to enter the National Assembly.

Since this coup, Claire Samson has often been made a caricature by comedians, especially by actor Marc Labrèche who imitates her and her boss in facebook live it is unlikely where Samson not only smoked, but drank a glass of wine. Also, the maker of his career in the world of television thought it well.

” If you’re not worth the humor, you’re worthless. “

The only thing that bothers him: Marc Labrèche suggests in his imitation that he is drunk when he participates in these discussions. I had a few drinks in the evening at home, but I wasn’t drunkhe says.

His departure from CAQ and his support for Éric Duhaime surprised many in François Legault’s party ranks. I never thought he would reach this farsummarizes Natasha Barnes-Crépeau.

It’s no secret that Claire Samson was deeply disappointed not to be appointed, in 2016, Minister of Culture to Legault’s cabinet when she acted as a critic in the field in CAQ is in opposition. He did not hesitate to express a strong opinion on the CAQ record in this area. That place is not really strong CAQ made in culturesummary of Samson.

But, in addition to his frustration, Samson explained his apostasy CAQ by a deep anxiety about the use of power. During the pandemic, we witnessed the weakening of the opposition, which was not healthy for democracy. I said to myself: “That’s not possible CAQ be crowned unopposed in the next elections. We need to give Quebecers options, checks and balances. “

The day after his sensational departure from the party, François Legault announced, with a smile, to wish good luck to Éric Duhaime, indicating that Samson was not easy to get along with. Me, I always have a pig’s head. I didn’t make the career I did as a yes-man. Samson laughed.

Claire Samson syndrome, from career woman to failed backbencher

In 1976, barely speaking English, Claire Samson left Montreal to live in New York. He studied law there and began a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at the prestigious NYU Stern School of Business.

However, Samson came from a small family. My mother had a third year because my grandmother, who lives in ruin in downtown Montreal with her nine children, had to send her to work at a sausage factory in Chinatown.he explained.

Claire Samson’s father is a Beauceron who arranges television and radio sets at RCA Victor and highly encourages his children to learn.

Back in Quebec in the early 1980s holding a diploma, he worked at the defunct CKAC radio station where he sought a sales position. One of mine boss I was told: “No. There are no women in the sale”. I resigned on the spot. It’s not true that a man will tell me what a woman can or can’t doSamson recalled, lighting a new cigarette.

A few days after leaving CKAC, Samson was recruited by Radio-Canada, where he rose through the ranks to become director of communications for French-language television services. In 1989, newspapers announced his departure for what was then called Télé-Métropole.

The Chagnon family wants to change the image of the channel made humor by calling it, tele-metro-poor, Samson recalls being vice president of communications. Michel Chamberland, who was vice-president of programming at TVA at the time, remembers a dynamic, determined woman. We looked for him on Radio-Canada because he was hardworking, positive, capablesaid Chamberland, 30 years later.

In 1993, Claire Samson returned to Radio-Canada, where she took on the roles of general manager of communications. Then, Samson would be the big boss of TQS, then direct, before taking a political step, the Association of Independent Producers of Quebec.

In her career, Claire Samson has read reports, expressed opinions, made decisions. In many articles written about him when he was an important character in the world of television, his professional qualities, his dynamism, his courage were praised. The back seats of the Blue Lounge are not made for everyone. Before her final retirement from public life, Claire Samson will provide assistance to Eric Duhaime during the election campaign. Then he will take the dog from SPCA and wants to try to quit smoking.

Claire Samson also wants to take care of her green plants and her flowers, while she jokingly predicts that if the trend continues and the CAQ make a full record of representatives: There will be a lot of sad people in CAQ.