Montreal Citizens' Movement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rassemblement des citoyens et des citoyennes de Montréal


n/a

Former Municipal Party
Founded	1973
Dissolved	2001

Leader	Jean Doré
President	n/a
Headquarters	n/a

Political ideology	Communitarianism, progressivism
International alignment	none
Colours	Red

Website	n/a

The Montreal Citizens' Movement (French: Rassemblement des citoyens et des citoyennes de Montréal or RCM) was a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It existed from 1973 to 2001.

1 Origins
2 Opposition to Jean Drapeau
3 The Doré administration and its accomplishments
4 Decline and merger
5 Mayoral candidates
6 Footnotes

[edit] Origins

The Montreal Citizens" Movement was founded shortly before the 1974 municipal elections by a variety of groups: members of the Front d'Action Politique (FRAP), a left-leaning coalition of community-based action groups which had unsuccessfully run in the 1970 election; the Urban Progressive Movement (UPM), a mostly English-speaking group of community activists with links to the New Democratic Party (NDP); union activists from the Montreal Councils of the CSN and FTQ federations; and many others with backgrounds in student, community or political movements.

Amongst the founders were journalist Nick Auf der Maur, Louise Harel, later a member of the Provincial government, and other activists who were not satisfied with the management style of the administration Jean Drapeau.^[1]

While FRAP had seen itself as a radical social movement as well as a municipal political party, the MCM defined itself as an electoralist party with firm community roots.

[edit] Opposition to Jean Drapeau

Eighteen of the party's candidates were elected to City Hall in 1974, constituting the first significant and effective opposition group since Drapeau became mayor more than a decade earlier. However the party was eventually plagued by internal divisions. Councillors Auf de Maur and Bob Keaton founded the Municipal Action Group (French: Groupe d'Action Municipale or GAM) with a group of dissidents, which split the opposition vote. In 1978, the total elected opposition in city council consisted of the Nick Auf Der Maur for MAG and Michael Fainstat for the MCM.

The MCM was put back on the way to recovery when Jean Doré became its leader and mayoral candidate in 1982. Doré finished a strong second and fifteen of his candidates were elected. In 1984, Doré won a by-election and became the City Coucillor of the district of Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

[edit] The Doré administration and its accomplishments

Doré was elected mayor in 1986 and 55 of his candidates were elected. The MCM Executive Committee consisted of Robert Perreault, Vice-Chairman. John Gardiner, 42, who oversaw housing and city planning, Kathleen Verdon, who was in charge of culture, tourism and relations with cultural communities and Jacqueline Bordeleau, who was responsible for public works and fire prevention and Lea Cousineau, who was in charge of recreation, social affairs, health and the status of women.

The party was devastated when longstanding members and sitting city councillors Pierre-Yves Melancon, Sam Boskey and Marvin Rotrand, and Pierre Goyer quit the party, accusing Dore of cozying up to powerful interests and betraying the MCM notion of reform. (They would later found the Democratic Colaition of Montreal (Coalition démocratique de Montréal). Dore had also lost much anglophone support by encouraging the enforcement of the controversial anti-English sign law Bill 101 and by renaming Dorchester Boulevard to Boulevard René-Lévesque. As well, the Overdale scandal - involving the demolition on an entire inner-city block and the expulsion of its low-income tenants - and tax hikes on businesses, as well as a poor financial climate would erode support for the MCM.

In 1990, Doré and his team would be re-elected with a reduced majority. Four more MCM councillors quit during this sitting.

The Doré administration is credited with:

the renewal of the Old Port and the parks and beaches of Ile Ste-Hélène
the completion of Berri Square (Place Émilie-Gamelin), Place Charles de Gaulle and the Archaeology Museum at Pointe-à-Callière;
the establishment of the fist public commissions ay City Hall;
the adoption of Montreal's first Master Urban Plan.

Nonetheless, it faced growing criticism by fiscal conservatives for its perceived ineffective style of government, including lax policies toward city employees, as well as an unwillingness to pay down the massive debt left by the projects of former mayor Jean Drapeau.

[edit] Decline and merger

By 1994, the MCM was voted out of office and held onto only 6 seats on Council. Doré, although he had won a seat on Council, decided not to sit. Internal struggles over the succession of Jean Doré undermined the party's credibility. After she won the MCM nomination for the 1998 mayoral election,^[2] City Councillor Thérèse Daviau left the party and announced that she would support Jacques Duchesneau - a former police chief - for Mayor.^[3]

In 1998, MCM candidate Michel Prescott finished third with 14.4% of the vote. Only four of his candidates were elected. The party survived for a few more years. But in the wake of the province-wide Municipal Merger of 2001, the MCM was absorbed by Gérald Tremblay's organization. In July 2001, the party formally merged with the Union des citoyens et des citoyennes de l’Île de Montréal. A few months later, Tremblay was elected mayor.

[edit] Mayoral candidates

Election	Mayoral Candidate	Popular Vote for Mayor	Number of Councillors
1974	Jacques Couture^[4]^[5]	39%	18/55
1978	Guy Duquette	12%	1/54
1982	Jean Doré	36%	15/57
1986	Jean Doré	68%	55/58
1990	Jean Doré	59%	41/50
1994	Jean Doré	32%	7/51
1998	Michel Prescott^[6]	14%	4/51