Quebec mayoral candidate who was mistakenly projected winner opens up about the experience
CBC
Ten days after Quebec's municipal elections, Marie-Josée Savard has opened up about her experience of being mistakenly projected as the winner of Quebec City's mayoral race.
Savard lost to Bruno Marchand by just 834 votes. It was a shocking turn of events, since she led for much of the evening. CBC and other media outlets projected a Savard victory. She even gave a victory speech.
Then, everything crumbled.
"For sure that night, when everything changed, I felt like we had taken my heart and put it on the table," she told Radio-Canada's Louise Boisvert during an interview at her home on Wednesday.
Radio-Canada has apologized for the mistake, saying the numbers at the time seemed to point to a Savard victory.
The pain of thinking she had won, and then realizing she had actually lost, prompted her to take a step back and spend time with her family and friends, she said.
"It was a really long campaign, the family was neglected," she said. "It wasn't easy for me, but neither was it for them."
She said she and her team talked about the results. "As much for those who lost as those who won, we needed to do a little group therapy."
One difficulty Savard says she faced during the campaign was that she was the heir apparent to outgoing mayor Régis Labeaume, who had ruled the city for 14 years.
"It was tough to present ideas that were our own in a debate or make promises because there was always that connection to decisions made in the past," she told Radio-Canada.
And, she said, it was even harder because Labeaume wasn't always there to defend his record.
Still, the former city councillor told Radio-Canada that she was happy with her campaign and that she wouldn't change a thing if she had to do it again.
She said she always knew losing was a possibility.
"An electoral campaign for the role of mayor, it's something quite exceptional," she said. "Quebec is a beautiful city and I feel privileged to have done that."