The Mayor of Peterborough’s f-bombs and the challenge of working in city politics

Guest: Diane Therrien, mayor of Peterborough

It was a tweet read across the country that got her city trending on Twitter. Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien called a group of QAnon-linked demonstrators who came to her city imbeciles and with a few uncensored expletives, told them to leave. Response to Therrien’s tweet has been varied. Some credit her for taking a strong stance against conspiracy theorists causing a ruckus, others say it was overly crass and offensive. But Therrien’s tweet is not a flippant comment. It was a culmination of years of trying to manage a government through a polarizing pandemic, a testament of burn out in municipal government, and a little bit of personal exhaustion in a job she says has not always been enjoyable. Therrien joins “This Matters” to discuss what was ultimately behind her tweet and why she’s deciding to leave politics, at least for now. As a warning to listeners, this conversation includes profane language.

This episode was produced by Alexis Green, Brian Bradley and Paulo Marques