At times, that criticism has escalated to the level of death threats.
While some criticism is to be expected, Plante attributes much of the public anger directed her way to the anxiety wrought by the pandemic.
“Not to minimize their actions of being very aggressive, violent or doing death threats, but I like to hope in the future, when people are less stressed and in a better position, things will calm down,” she said.
She also faced criticism earlier this year over her novel itself, with some high-profile commentators questioning her decision to “draw cartoons” as the city was embroiled in the COVID-19 crisis.
Plante dismissed this as unfounded, especially since she says the writing process wrapped up in late 2019.
“People were just kind of trashing the book (without) even reading it, which I thought was sad, because it wasn’t about the content, it was about criticizing the author,” she said. However, she did push back the book’s publication for a few months when the pandemic’s second wave began.
Plante said she would still recommend politics to young people who want to make a difference, even as she acknowledges it’s a “tough” career that comes with unusual levels of public exposure.
“But hopefully people see in the book, the love that you get from your volunteers, it’s a community, it’s people working together,” she said.
“It’s worth it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2020.
