From Liberal leader to professor: Dominique Anglade has no regrets

QUEBEC — She’s out of politics and very happy about it.

“I am not going to play the meddling mother-in-law,” Anglade said Wednesday in an interview with the Montreal Gazette to announce she has accepted a new job as an associate professor at the HEC Montréal business school.

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“That’s not the role I want to play. There are so many things I can focus on and that I’m passionate about, you won’t hear me comment on this (politics).”

But a rested and relaxed Anglade says she is moving on with her life, is enjoying being back home with her family and does not miss any of the political game. She is keeping in touch with members of the Liberal party but out of friendship with some of them.

And she is not participating in the party’s renewal process except to say she met privately with the committee working on it. She did not reveal what she told them.

“Honestly, no,” she said in one of her first interviews since leaving politics when asked if she missed her previous life. “I spent seven years in politics. I was an MNA, I was a minister, I was deputy premier, I was leader of the party, I did three general elections.

“You know, it was very intense. I gave it all I had and I have no regrets. I am doing something else now and I’m really happy to be doing it.”

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That something else is in education, helping business leaders learn about an issue dear to her: sustainable development. She says it’s a logical follow to the kind of policies she steered the Liberals toward in the time she was leader.

The difference this time is she will be helping future business leaders learn about these issues. Starting Sept. 11, her new title will be associate professor and co-leader for the management of sustainable development transition. It is a full-time job.

The mandate is specifically to develop the new tools and courses to help students, organizations and businesses adapt to climate change. That includes an international dimension.

“They really have a great team here,” Anglade said. “They changed their mission. They really want to reflect the need for business leaders to have a sustainable approach to everything. I am really convinced they (at the HEC) are super agile, very flexible and very open.

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“What we need to think about is how those business leaders will be equipped with the right tools in order to face the challenges of the ecological crisis and decisions they have to make in investment and sustainable financing. All these questions should be front and centre.”

Anglade added she will have a particular focus on women and climate change, a new area of study that is not well known.

“Climate change has a tremendous impact on women,” Anglade said, noting women play a much bigger role in agricultural internationally than they do in Quebec. “Older women are more impacted by the change of temperature than men. Right now in Switzerland there is a group of older women suing the government, saying you have not changed to adapt to the heat waves, and women are impacted.

“It has a lot of repercussions on women, and I really want to study this.”

Founded in 1907, HEC Montréal welcomes more than 13,400 students a year.

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