(Sutton) The last time I met Lyne Bessette was July 17, 2021. She was in the middle of Maple Street, in Sutton, and had just rescued a cyclist who had collided with a car.
Coming back from a bike ride herself, she was one of the first people to arrive at the scene of the accident. The one who was then federal deputy for Brome-Missisquoi had taken charge of the operations. So-and-so, call for help. Another one, take care of the traffic.
Bessette had immobilized the head of the victim, a 27-year-old young woman who had also lost part of her middle finger.
“I found the tip of his finger,” said a lady who came to help. Bessette asked that we wrap him in a towel and put him on ice. First responders arrived soon after, followed by paramedics. We were able to talk to each other for a few minutes, we went to my chalet nearby.
The drawn features, thin as a thread, she had announced the day before, on social networks, that she would not run for a second term, which had caused a small commotion in the region. She had cited personal reasons and a desire to finally take time for herself. She had not said more in a short interview granted to The Voice of the East.
Ten months later, a former colleague asked me about him. Nothing. We haven’t seen her in the winter on the slopes of Mount Sutton, where she is a member of the ski patrol, nor on the alpine hiking trails.
The idea of contacting her again came to me after an interview with Geneviève Jeanson, her former great fallen rival (see screen 3). I wrote to him to offer him an interview/cycling tour.
She accepted on one condition: “I would like to do a 120-130 km tomorrow, so short and sweet for the interview, when you have everything you need, I take off. How are you? »
“I felt a bit trapped in a cage”
On Tuesday, she was therefore on my chalet’s doorstep 15 minutes before the agreed time. Smiling, she rode her new gravel bike, a beautiful used Parlee with big 42mm wide tires. She had regained weight and color compared to the last time. At 47, she still looks like an Olympic athlete.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Lyne Bessette on her big tire Parlee
We agreed to settle the interview before leaving. First question: why not represent yourself?
“Often, you follow the course of things. You say to yourself: I’m going to represent myself, then something happens in your life and you realize that it’s not necessarily what you wanted. It was a wonderful life experience, I had a great mandate, with a great team and great bosses. I learned lots of things. But there were still plenty of others that I wanted to experience and I wasn’t ready to get back on board. »
In 2019, the Liberal Party of Canada approached her to succeed Denis Paradis, outgoing MP. She initially refused, following the advice of her friends, who advised her “90%” not to embark on this.
I went to a meeting and got my arm sprained a bit. I said to myself: at worst, it will be four years, it can’t be that bad. It will be a lifetime experience. Learning politics is like going to college. I will have this in my luggage.
Lyne Bessette
The campaign was a first big challenge. Knock on doors, introduce yourself to people who are sometimes resistant to politics. She was hot in debates where she did not feel as seasoned as her vis-à-vis.
Bessette believes that her English “saved” her in a nearly 20% Anglophone riding. She beat her closest rival, Bloc candidate Monique Allard, by nearly 2,300 votes (38.2% of the vote against 34.4%).
Most of her term took place during the pandemic, even if she did not slip a single word of it during the interview. Like everyone else, she adapted by buying a desk-bike for videoconferences. During the phone sessions, she ran on a treadmill or pedaled a road simulator.
Looking back, she realizes that she would probably have done better to wait a few years before embarking on a political career.
“I thought I was still young. I still like to move. It’s been my life. There are athletes who move on. They cycle on weekends with their children. That’s correct. I haven’t been there in my life and I don’t know if I will ever be there. »
I still have this desire to push my limits. There are plenty of challenges that I want to take on. In politics, you have to be 200%, morning, noon, evening and weekend. I did, but I saw that I was not going in that direction. I felt a bit trapped in a cage.
Lyne Bessette
However, she is very proud of what she describes as her three main achievements: the $2 million grant for the new indoor velodrome at the Bromont National Cycling Center, the cleaning up of the region’s lakes and citizen mobilization for the connection to high-speed Internet, on the eve of being realized in cooperation with the government of Quebec.
On the other hand, she had a bad experience of what she perceived as an ambient negativism. “At the federal level, you are the last resort for people after the municipal and the provincial. People don’t come to the grocery store to congratulate you on your career. When they approach you, it’s rarely positive. It’s to tell you that everything is going badly, it ends up affecting you on a daily basis. »
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Lyne Bessette in interview with our journalist Simon Drouin
“As thin as at the Olympics”
On a personal level, she is going through an ordeal: her husband left her on her birthday, March 10, 2021. He practically disappeared without hearing from her again, she says.
“I had no explanations, nothing. I had life plans with my husband and all of a sudden it all fell apart. It’s as if 20 years of my life disappeared. »
Last winter, she went to Western Canada to clear her mind. She has been alpine hiking on the glaciers of British Columbia. She cleaned in a shelter.
I was as skinny as when I did the Olympics. I decided to get a change of scenery to restore my health. But it doesn’t happen overnight. I could have been in China, you suffer the same. Quietly, I take my head out of the water.
Lyne Bessette
To clear her mind, she swallows the miles on her bike or running. She has some endurance events to prepare for the summer, including a five-day adventure race with Brazilian friends next month in British Columbia. On the menu: trekking, mountain biking, abseiling and 100 km of rafting on a river.
“We sleep when we can. I’m having a bit of trouble with this, but I can’t wait to see how it goes. »
She will also do the Trans-Percé of the Ultratrail Gaspesia 100 (100 km trail race over three days), the Buckland (130 km gravel bike) and the Gravel Bikepacking Challenge, another 500 km gravel bike race. km in the Magog region.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
After the interview, Lyne Bessette and our journalist left to ride.
A short tour of the Townships
So I turned off the register and we went driving. She on her big 42 mm knobby tires, me on my 25 mm road. With Lyne Bessette as a guide on the gravel roads, no problem… or almost.
We left Sutton by route 215, where we met his father Alfred by chance. After a few kilometres, we cut into a first dirt road, before reaching a path that looked like a playground for four-wheelers, between Brome and Knowlton. We had to stop to step over a tree that had fallen during the storms last Saturday evening.
We followed the bike path that runs along Brome Lake before stopping in the hamlet of Foster, where she said hello to friends who own the superb Virgin Hill Coffee roastery. After a cappuccino, we crossed Highway 10 to go around Lake Waterloo, still on a gravel track.
After another pass under the A10, we stopped at his younger brother’s in Fulford to take out Victor, an avid Frisbee golden retriever. We came back on dirt roads between Brome Lake and Bromont.
In Knowlton, Bessette offered to rush down a forest trail she used as a child. She laughed when I got stuck in a swamp, a hair’s breadth from covering myself in mud and shame.
What would I have looked like at Heating Alfred Bessette et Fils, the paternal business now owned by his brother? His mother Johanne still works there and she laughed a lot at my misadventure. I took revenge by having a puncture that Bessette offered to fix.
On the way back, she showed me her house in Sutton, her pond and her forest of about twenty acres. She dropped me off at my house before finishing the Maple climb. Mileage: 73.5 km. Hourly average? You won’t know.
