Action Montreal was a short-lived municipal political party in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada, that existed from February to April 1994 under the leadership of entrepreneur

Claude Beauchamp Claude Beauchamp (July 9, 1939 – April 12, 2020) was a journalist, publisher, and political activist in the Canadian province of Quebec. He was born in Montreal. Journalist and publisher Beauchamp began his career as a financial writer for '' L ...

Origins and platform

Beauchamp began his campaign for

mayor of Montreal The mayor of Montreal is head of the executive branch of the Montreal City Council. The current mayor is Valérie Plante, who was elected into office on November 5, 2017, and sworn in on November 16. The office of the mayor administers all ci ...

in November 1993 as the leader of a new and as-yet-unnamed political movement. He formally launched Action Montreal on February 10, 1994, and indicated that the party would soon begin recruiting candidates for

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

. The party was officially registered by Quebec's chief electoral officer on February 21, 1994. During its short existence, Action Montreal was supported by three councillors:

Nick Auf der Maur Nick Erik Auf der Maur (April 10, 1942 – April 7, 1998)Downey, Donn. ''Montreal columnist chronicled cancer fight'', A1. '' The Globe and Mail'', April 9, 1998. was a Canadian journalist, politician and "man about town" boulevardier in Montre ...

Gérard Legault Gérard ( French: ) is a French masculine given name and surname of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constit ...

, and

Vittorio Capparelli Vittorio Capparelli is a politician in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He served on the Montreal city council from 1986 to 1998 and was a member of the Montreal executive committee (i.e., the municipal cabinet) from 1994 to 1996. Early life and career ...

. The party could have formed the official opposition in March 1994 had it sought official recognition from council, but Beauchamp said that he did not wanthis party to achieve this status with councillors who had previously been elected for other parties. As such, Auf der Maur, Legault, and Capparelli officially served as independents. Action Montreal advocated conservative views on economic issues. Beauchamp criticized the salaries of Montreal's civil servants at the party's launch and suggested that some positions could be abolished. He later suggested that services such as aqueducts, roads, swimming pools, and libraries could be run by the private sector or as private-public partnerships. Some opponents criticized the party's focus on business issues and described Beauchamp as little more than a representative of the city's business lobby. One of the Action Montreal's founding members was Michel Pallascio, a former chair of the

Montreal Catholic School Commission The Montreal Catholic School Commission (Commission des écoles catholiques de Montréal, CECM) was a Roman Catholic school district in Montreal, Quebec, Canada which operated both French-language and English-language schools. It was the largest s ...

who had once suggested that Quebec should only accept immigrants with values reflecting the province's "Judeo-Christian" majority, a comment that was seen as intolerant toward immigrants from other backgrounds. Pallascio resigned from the party at Beauchamp's request after his past comments were highlighted in the media.

Dissolution

Action Montreal ceased operations on April 5, 1994, when Beauchamp announced his resignation from the mayoral contest and gave his support to prospective

Vision Montreal Vision Montreal (french: Vision Montréal or VM) was a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1994 and dissolved in April 2014. Between 2001 and 2013 it formed the official opposition on Montreal City Council. ...

candidate Pierre Bourque. Shortly before his resignation, a ''

Le Devoir ''Le Devoir'' (, "Duty") is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and throughout Canada. It was founded by journalist and politician Henri Bourassa in 1910. ''Le Devoir'' is one of few independent large-c ...

'' poll indicated that Beauchamp was in fourth place among declared or likely mayoral candidates. Many Action Montreal members later joined either Vision Montreal or the Montrealers' Party.Michelle Lalonde, "New candidates for Choquette; Ten ex-members of defunct Action Montreal Party join municipal-election team of mayoral hopeful," ''Montreal Gazette'', 24 August 1994, p. 3.

References

Municipal political parties in Montreal