Even today, elected officials continue visits to the funeral show

The mayor of Louiseville, Yvon Deshaies, and the federal deputy for Bécancour-Nicolet-Saurel-Alnôbak, Louis Plamondon, both perpetuate a tradition that may seem in another time, to go and offer their sympathies to families in funeral salons on the weekend.

Mr. Deshaies and Mr. Plamondon consider it each to make up to 150 or even 200 each year, for four decades. For the mayor Yvon Deshaies, it is a personal and not political process. The two politicians are among those who keep this living tradition and who hold the record for this number of visits.

The last weekend will have been calm enough for the mayor of Louiseville, he only visited two deceased and their family.

In 40 years, it is by the thousands that its presences are counted in in the funeral salons. M Deshaies makes these kinds of visits to his city, but also in the surroundings and as far, sometimes, as in Montreal or in Quebec.

Me, this is my way of living this, of going to tell people, to greet them, to encourage themexplains Mr. Deshaies.

He keeps his short visits and remains about 10 or 15 minutes. In the vast majority of cases, he entered random. The deceased are neither relatives, friends, nor acquaintances. The mayor assures that there is no political motivation in his approach.

I don’t care about politics, I have been in politics for 36 years then it’s been 40 or 38 years since I was doing it, long before that. Of course, being mayor, I know more peoplehe explains.

The reception by the bereaved families is still good, testifies the director of the funeral house Richard, Gilles Richard, used to seeing the mayor of Louiseville in his living room.

Each time he presents himself, people are always happy to see him. He is a man who is popular in the world and then people appreciate this gesture, that he comes to sympathize with themhe said.

This is of course unmissable, the mayor of Louiseville is often arrested on political subjects. Given the place and circumstances, he prefers to remain cautious, even if we sometimes approach him about the death penalty or Donald Trump.

An inseparable tradition of politics

The federal deputy Louis Plamondon does not give his place either in terms of funeral visits. Recently, the elected octogenarian slowed down the cadence. But, well in the year, since 1984, he has been going to offer his condolences three to six times a week.

They all say to me: “Thank you for moving to you”. I say: “It’s completely normal”explains Mr. Plamondon.

At the time, he was kept informed of deaths in his county and it could happen that the approach was not entirely without political connotation.

In each of the parishes, we had what is called a post, an organizer. And there, he informed us of deaths. If it was a big family, it was important to come. This guy supported ustells Mr. Plamondon.

The practice wants a funeral home to be open to everyone, and that funerals allow public visits without an unknown visitor breaks the label of this kind of ceremony.