Le Dynamique de la Mauricie Closes Its Doors

Justin Chauvette and Kate Grenier, the two coordinators of this virtual exhibition, speak with Lise Léveillé, a native of the region who acquired ownership of Le Dynamique de la Mauricie in 1978.

Kate – When you left the newspaper, was it because it was shutting down?

Lise – I’m the one who decided to close it. Because of L’Hebdo Normandie, as well. I think that’s what the other weekly was called.

André – I think so. Normandie, yeah.

Lise – He had come to see me, to buy me out. That was in ’84, I think. But I wasn’t interested. I was young and wanted to keep things going. And then the guy says, “Well, maybe it won’t be a sale, but eventually…” So, the guy started distributing L’Hebdo Normandie around here, for free. Maybe that could have hurt me, but I still had the advertisers. People subscribed to my newspaper. They definitely read it. L’Hebdo Normandie just dropped off bundles at the post office. Anyway, I ended up playing my cards right. But at a certain point, I started to get tired of it all, you know? Plus, my husband wasn’t [Inaudible]. And he wanted to become a real estate agent, so that was on the go. I ended up making a decision. I did like my husband and took the course. I became a real estate agent. I ended up loving that as well. He was also building 36 housing units. We had a lot on our hands, you know? That made me happy because at the newspaper, I had found that it was always the same routine, you know? Anyway… It was something different, working as a real estate agent. I loved it, too. And after, I started looking after the housing units and… No, I was happy whatever I was doing.

Kate – You were happy to change things up. But was your head still a little bit in the newspaper game? Did you miss it?

Lise – No. As soon as I closed up shop, people started telling me how much they missed Le Dynamique. For my part, I told them I didn’t miss it.

Kate – That chapter was closed. You needed to move on to other things.

Lise – I turned the page. And being a real estate agent was something else altogether. You know, we were always out and about, we moved around. It was a completely different life. No, when I make a decision… Like when I decided to sell my rental properties, I made my decision and I didn’t look back, you know?

Kate – That’s where you ended up, and it was OK like that.

Lise – Yeah, yeah.