Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante mourns the loss of her father

Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante, right, takes part in a press conference following a roundtable discussion with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Big City Mayors' Caucus, in Ottawa on Monday, Jan. 28, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is mourning the loss of her father, who died at an undisclosed age.

In a message posted on her Instagram account, Plante said Gaétan Plante died suddenly in his sleep. He had been suffering from poor health for the past year.

The mayor's multi-paragraph message praises her father, who, she writes, showed her that you can dream and achieve your goals when you put your heart to work.

"In my blood runs that ironclad will that was his," she wrote.

Plante was born in Rouyn-Noranda and spent her childhood and part of her adolescence in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

She added that her father's smile and joie de vivre were his trademarks. When she entered politics, she would take him door-to-door or, better yet, to a seniors' home, where he was an instant success.

Information on Gaétan Plante's funeral was not released.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 6, 2023.