Freshly elected, the Federal MP for Trois-Rivières suggested that we meet in a cafe in the city center where she arrived in the wind, a smoking herbal tea in this Frisquette morning who did not cool her enthusiasm.
As of April 1, the date on which the Liberal Party announced its candidacy when the electoral campaign was already well started, Caroline Desrochers multiplied the meetings to demonstrate that she was much more than a “parachuted” candidate, as the media first presented.
Twenty-eight days later, the 52-year-old woman crossed the first thread, to the delight of her close guard, in this case her spouse, Danny Myint, and their two children, brave, 17, and Maya Lin, 14. Hello adolescence!
“Hence the deadline to make my decision,” she explains, smiling.
Caroline Desrochers summoned a family council before putting her name on ballots in a riding more than 300 kilometers from the house. “It’s far,” she said to her teenagers whose reaction has left no doubt … “Go ahead!”
On Monday, her husband and her children spent the day of the election with her, but had to leave Trois-Rivières regret, before the unveiling of the results, later in the evening. That said, her trio was able to celebrate her victory with her, via a live video call … from Lavaltrie.
The electric car needed to be recharged.
Caroline Desrochers laughs while telling the anecdote, happy to have been able to share this moment with them, even from a distance.
“There was a lot of emotion!” Confirms the one whose mother was by her side, proud to applaud the whole path traveled by her daughter.
Caroline Desrochers celebrated her victory with her team, her mother and family … live from a video call filled with pride. (Stéphane Lessard/Archives Le Nouvelliste)
Little Caroline grew up on the South Shore in Montreal with a ten-year-old big brother her elder. First of class, she loved school and dreamed of becoming a teacher. His four cousins could testify. “In summer, I made them do dictations and additions!”
The little girl was 8 years old when her parents separated. “My father was a trucker who was traveling a lot in the eastern country and in the United States. He was often gone, ”recalls Caroline Desrochers whose mother worked in the restoration world.
Caroline Desrochers began college studies in literature, but like many young people, the transition to adulthood has been marked by questioning. Who am I? What do I do? Where are I going?
It was his “love” for problem solving that tipped the scales in favor of the economy. She was 24 years old when she started her studies at Concordia University, just a few months after the death of her father carried away by lightning cancer.
“He always encouraged me, telling myself that I was good and intelligent, that I could do whatever I wanted.”— Caroline Desrochers
At the end of her baccalaureate, Caroline Desrochers wanted to travel while supporting her host community. The young woman did a six -month humanitarian internship in Mexico, with children on the street.
The need to help has always been present in it. Caroline Desrochers recently got her hands on her high school graduating album, moved to reread a note from her French teacher who had written “altruist” next to her name.
“I am a service person,” agrees the woman who, on the return from this marking experience abroad, took over the management of Ottawa where she accepted a contract at the top of the Americas in Quebec in 2001. This mandate of a few months has extended and traced in a way her international career.
Three years later, Caroline Desrochers obtained a position as an agent of political and public affairs in the Canadian Embassy in Haiti. She stayed there for two years, during which she met the one who was going to become her husband, then on a peace mission for the United Nations.
-Danny Myint comes from northern Burma (now Myanmar). This diplomat’s son grew up in Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States, more precisely in New York where he returned to live in 2006 with that which maintained his functions of diplomatic relations while doing a master’s degree in media studies … and two children.
“I was productive!” Laughs the MP whose children were respectively 4 years and 1 year when the family was moved to Ottawa before returning to the Big Apple in 2015, when Caroline Desrochers became director at the Consulate General of Canada in New York.
The small family stayed there until the start of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. She has since been installed in the municipality of Chelsea, about fifteen kilometers from Ottawa.
I spare you the detailed description of its frankly impressive curriculum vitae, but to summarize, Caroline Desrochers has the Ministry of World Affairs Canada tattooed on the heart. She worked as director general of the transformation team when the call for politics was heard.
During the electoral campaign, Caroline Desrochers presented itself as a training economist with more than twenty years of experience to defend the interests of Canadians. (Stéphane Lessard/Le Nouvelliste)
The electoral campaign was a succession of meetings with stakeholders in the economy, industry and research sector who, each in their own way, confirmed their “craze” for three-rivières.
“With the knowledge and skills I have, it’s the right place for me!”
Caroline Desrochers is also affected by socio -community issues, including the housing crisis and the rise in roaming, a reality that she knows personally …
“I worked with the children on the street, but I also have a cousin, now deceased, which was a traveling for many years due to consumption and mental health problems.”— Caroline Desrochers
To find avenues of solutions, the former humanitarian trainee intends to play a role of gathering between the various government levels and the organizations that fight against roaming.
Altruistic one day, still altruistic.
“It calls on me, what people live. This is not just because it sounds well in an interview. ”— Caroline Desrochers
Last Sunday, the day before the election day, Maya Lin spent the afternoon in front of the river which borders the district of Trois-Rivières where the teenager distributed leaflets inviting voters to vote for her favorite candidate.
Take a break with this pretty view undoubtedly reminded him of the Gatineau river which runs along a path a few steps from the house, in Outaouais.
His mother was there again during the last month, time to come and get a second suitcase and then resume the three-way race which was emerging in Trois-Rivières.
Now that the voters have chosen it to represent them, Caroline Desrochers is looking for a pied-à-terre. His family will come to join him there and during the school holidays, between his round trips to Ottawa where the calendar of weekly sessions in the House of Commons should allow him to have breakfast with her children.
The woman considers herself lucky to be able to count on her spouse whose professional activities, generally in teleworking, allow her to watch over their clan in her absence.
“I raise my hat!” She launches, also having a thought for her father who told her that everything was possible, that she should not put himself limits.
This is what Caroline Desrochers repeats today to her teenagers happy to live with her this new adventure which gives a little vertigo, a beautiful vertigo like family-political reconciliation.
