Pierre Mainville

Pierre Mainville is a politician in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He served on Montreal city council from 2005-2013, representing Sainte-Marie in the downtown Ville-Marie borough first as a member of Vision Montréal then as a member of Projet Montréal then as an independent. He was defeated in the November 2013 municipal election.

Private career

Mainville has worked as a technician-coordinator at Radio-Canada for more than three decades. He has also been a representative of the Regroupement des commerçants de la rue Ontario, working on local issues involving crime, prostitution, and development.^[1]

Borough councillor

Mainville was elected to the Ville-Marie borough council in the 2005 Montreal municipal election as a member of the Vision Montreal party. Montreal mayor Gérald Tremblay's Montreal Island Citizens' Union (MICU) won four of the five borough seats in this election, and Mainville was initially the only member of the opposition. He was the sole councillor to vote against a local $15 million surtax for new recreational and cultural services in 2006, arguing that the funds should have come from the entire city.^[2] The following year, he was the only councillor to vote against the introduction of harsh financial penalties for littering and graffiti.^[3] He argued that the law would be difficult to enforce and would result in arbitrary and unfair penalties. He also criticized a requirement that local merchants clean up vandalism outside their shops, arguing that this shifted responsibility away from the offenders.^[4]

In September 2007, Ville-Marie borough mayor Benoît Labonté and councillor Karim Boulos resigned from Tremblay's party to sit as independents. Mainville initially provided outside support to Labonté and Boulos, allowing them to maintain majority control on council. In October 2007, he was appointed to the borough's public safety committee.^[5]

Labonté and Boulos eventually joined Vision Montreal and formed an official governing caucus in conjunction with Mainville. This proved to be a short-lived alliance, however — Mainville resigned from Vision Montreal on 10 December 2008, saying that he did not have confidence in Labonté's leadership.^[6] For the next year, he served on the borough council as an independent.

City councillor

Mainville was elected to the Montreal city council in the 2009 municipal election as a member of Projet Montréal.^[7] Some of this party's organizers had sought to draft Mainville as early as 2006, noting his speaking skills and his progressive views.^[8]

By virtue of being a city councillor, Mainville also continues to serve on the Ville-Marie borough council. In late 2009, he introduced a successful motion demanding that city council ask the provincial government to hold an inquiry into allegations of corruption in Montreal's construction sector.^[9] In June 2010, Mainville voted against a motion to establish a homeless youth shelter on a stretch of Ste. Catherine Street in Montreal's Gay Village district. He initially supported the plan, but changed his mind after hearing concerns that locating a shelter near bars and nightclubs would be counter-productive for combating drug addiction among the shelter's clientele.^[10]

Mainville has spoken in support of preserving Montreal's Redpath mansion.^[11]

He resigned from Projet Montréal to serve as an independent councillor on September 14, 2012.^[12]

Electoral record

References

1. ↑ Biographie: Pierre Mainville, Projet Montréal, accessed 2 October 2011.
2. ↑ "Ville Marie residents to pay more tax," Montreal Gazette, 30 June 2006, p. 7.
3. ↑ "That butt on the sidewalk now can cost $100," Montreal Gazette, 2 May 2007, p. 7.
4. ↑ "Clean up - or else!: Fines stiff. Downtowners must keep their sidewalks looking spiffy," Montreal Gazette, 20 February 2007, p. 1; Rene Bruemmer, "Butt-ugly sidewalks; City's smokers proving resistant to downtown cleanliness efforts," Montreal Gazette, 4 September 2007, p. 6.
5. ↑ Linda Gyulai, "Labonte dumps mayor's ally; Councillor Sevigny fired from Ville Marie posts," Montreal Gazette, 3 October 2007, p. 6.
6. ↑ "Borough councillor quits Labonte's team," Montreal Gazette, 11 December 2008, p. 8.
7. ↑ Jason Magder, "Tearful Forcillo thanks army of volunteers; Family and friends pitched in to help veteran politician win in a new district," Montreal Gazette, 2 November 2009, p. 6.
8. ↑ Linda Gyulai, "Idealism grows at the table," Montreal Gazette, 4 June 2006, p. 1. See also Linda Gyulai, "Stars look very different today for waning Vision Montreal; Party stalwarts jumping ship," Montreal Gazette, 5 December 2008, p. 6.
9. ↑ Linda Gyulai, "Tough words in Ville Marie; 'Under trusteeship,' man says. 'You're not second-class citizens,' Tremblay tells borough council meeting," Montreal Gazette, 25 November 2009, p. 4.
10. ↑ James Mennie, "City okays youth shelter in Gay Village," Montreal Gazette, 17 June 2010, p. 6.
11. ↑ Henry Aubin, "Pesky Projet stings Tremblay; Projet Montréal has effectively become the opposition and brought energy into sluggish municipal politics," Montreal Gazette, 12 February 2011, p. 7.
12. ↑ "Pierre Mainville quitte Projet Montréal", Radio-Canada, 17 September 2012, accessed 15 January 2013.