Laurent Blanchard (born November 25, 1952) is a politician in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
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. He represented the east-end Hochelaga ward on
Montreal city council
The Montreal City Council (french: Conseil municipal de Montréal) is the governing body in the mayor–council government in the city of Montreal, Quebec. The head of the city government in Montreal is the mayor, who is first among equals in the ...
from 2005 to 2013, initially as a member of
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.
O ...
and later as an independent. On June 25, 2013, he was elected by council as interim
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 c ...
,
["Laurent Blanchard new interim mayor of Montreal"]
. ''The Gazette
The Gazette (stylized as the GazettE), formerly known as , is a Japanese visual kei Rock music, rock band, formed in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa in early 2002.''Shoxx'' Vol 106 June 2007 pg 40-45 The band is currently signed to Sony Music Recor ...
'', June 25, 2013. a position he served in until the election of
Denis Coderre
Denis Coderre (born July 25, 1963) is a Canadian politician from Quebec. Coderre was the member of Parliament for the riding of Bourassa from 1997 until 2013, and was the Immigration minister from 2002 to 2003 and became the mayor of Mont ...
on
November 3, 2013.
Early life and career
Blanchard was born in Montreal's
Mercier
Mercier is French for ''notions dealer'' or ''haberdasher'', and may refer to:
People
* Agnès Mercier, French curler and coach
*Annick Mercier (born 1964), French curler
*Amanda H. Mercier (born 1975), American Judge
* Armand Mercier, (1933–20 ...
district and worked in the publishing sector before entering political life. He was for many years the owner and publisher of ''Les Nouvelles de l'Est'' and also became assistant to the president of ''Hebdos Télémédia'' in the late 1980s. Blanchard was a political attaché in mayor
Jean Doré
Jean Doré (12 December 1944 – 15 June 2015) was a Canadian politician and mayor of the City of Montreal, Quebec.
Background
Doré studied law at the Université de Montréal, where he was president of the student union from 1967 to 1968. ...
's administration from 1991 to 1994, working in internal affairs, and was director-general of the ''Corporation de développement de l’Est'' (CDEST) from 1995 to 2002.
City councillor
Blanchard was first elected to city council in the
2005 municipal election, defeating incumbent councillor
Luc Larivée from mayor
Gérald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay (born September 20, 1942) is a former Canadian politician and businessman who served as mayor of Montreal from 2002 until his resignation in 2012. He also served as president of the Montreal Metropolitan Community. Before b ...
's
Montreal Island Citizens Union (MICU). Tremblay's party won a majority on council, and Blanchard served as a member of the
official opposition
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...
.
In 2006, Blanchard urged the
Montreal Executive Committee The Montreal Executive Committee (french: Comité exécutif de Montréal) is the executive branch of the municipal government of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The committee reports directly to city hall and is responsible for generating documents such a ...
to rescind a policy it had approved ''in camera'' the previous month, restricting Montreal civil servants from disclosing information deemed to be "confidential," "reserved," "for internal use" or "personal." Blanchard noted that this policy had never been presented to the full council. In the same period, he joined with fellow councillor
Gaëtan Primeau in a "bathrobe protest," showing up to a 6 am budget meeting dressed in his bathrobe and arguing that the meeting had been scheduled too early for public participation.
Blanchard was re-elected in the
2009 municipal election. Tremblay's party, now renamed as
Union Montreal
Union Montreal (french: Union Montréal) is an inactive municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was the governing party in the city from 2001, when it won its first election under mayor Gérald Tremblay, until 2012. The party rem ...
, again won a majority on council, and Blanchard continued to serve as an opposition member.
In April 2011, following rising concerns about corruption in the awarding of municipal contracts, Tremblay appointed Blanchard to head a committee that would review contracts considered to "deviate from norms." Blanchard acknowledged in September 2012 that there were several restrictions on the types of contracts his committee could review, that it ultimately reviewed only five to ten percent of city council and island council contracts, and that it was almost never able to review borough-level contracts.
Tremblay resigned as mayor in November 2012 amid the backdrop of a growing corruption scandal, and
Michael Applebaum was chosen by council as his successor. On November 22, 2012, Applebaum named Blanchard to chair the city's
executive committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
(i.e., the municipal cabinet) on November 22, 2012. The new mayor had previously announced that the committee chair would be non-partisan, and so, as a condition of his appointment, Blanchard resigned from Vision Montreal to serve as an independent member. He also held executive responsibilities for infrastructure, buildings, real estate transactions, information technology, and corporate communications.
In April 2013, Applebaum and Blanchard announced that the company
Dessau
Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...
would be banned from bidding on public contracts for five years, after a former senior vice-president testified before the
Charbonneau Commission
The Commission of Inquiry on the Awarding and Management of Public Contracts in the Construction Industry (french: Commission d'enquête sur l'octroi et la gestion des contrats publics dans l'industrie de la construction, also known as the Charbonn ...
on municipal corruption that the company had taken part in collusion and price inflation.
Mayor
Michael Applebaum resigned as mayor on June 18, 2013, after being charged with fourteen criminal offenses including fraud and corruption; he maintains that he is innocent. Blanchard was selected as the new interim mayor of the city on June 25, 2013.
He obtained 30 of 61 votes from the city council, against 28 votes for
Harout Chitilian
Harout Chitilian (Armenian: Հարութ Շիթիլեան) (born in 1980 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a former city councillor from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, former chairman of the council, he held the position of vice president of the executive comm ...
and three votes for acting mayor
Jane Cowell-Poitras
Jane Cowell-Poitras (born 1953) is a Canadian politician. She was an elected member of Montreal City Council from 2001 until 2013 and had served as councillor of Lachine from 1988 until its amalgamation with Montreal in 2001. Her portfolio inclu ...
. Two additional candidates,
François Croteau and
Alan DeSousa
Alan DeSousa (born 1959) is a city councillor from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is also the borough mayor of Saint-Laurent, and the former chairman of the Montreal Executive Committee. He is currently vice-chairman in charge of sustainable dev ...
, withdrew their names in advance of voting.
Following the vote,
Projet Montréal
Projet Montréal (officially Projet Montréal - Équipe Valérie Plante) is a progressive, environmentalist municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 2004, it is led by Valérie Plante, and holds a majority of seats on M ...
leader
Richard Bergeron
Richard Bergeron (born 1955) is a Canadian politician and former Montreal city councillor. He founded Projet Montréal, a municipal political party, and was its leader until 2014. He was the party's mayoralty candidate in the 2005, 2009 and 201 ...
commented, "With Laurent Blanchard, we have the assurance that we will have no unpleasant surprises to be afraid of. Laurent Blanchard is above all suspicion. I think Montrealers have seen enough for now."
[Ren Bruemmer, "Blanchard pledges serenity, stability; Former newspaper publisher sworn in after a close vote," ''Montreal Gazette'', 26 June 2013, A4.]
Blanchard has said that the central theme of his interim mayoralty will be, "The city continues to function."
He announced his new executive committee on June 28, 2013, making only minor changes from the previous committee's membership. In addition to serving as mayor, Blanchard has executive responsibility for finances, human resources, and legal affairs. He is not seeking re-election as mayor in the
2013 municipal election.
In August 2013, Blanchard reluctantly announced that municipal contracts for infrastructure renewal would go to
SNC-Lavalin
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is a Canadian company based in Montreal that provides engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services to various industries, including mining and metallurgy, oil and gas, environment and water, infrastructure, a ...
and
BPR, firms that had previously been cited at the Charbonneau Commission for alleged bid-rigging. In explaining this decision, he noted that the relevant call for tenders had been issued in late 2012, a few weeks before the city adopted more stringent contracting rules; he further argued that issuing a new call would result in delays and unsafe road conditions. "It wasn't an easy decision, but, legally, we had no choice," Blanchard said. "We understand that Montrealers will ask 'why?'"
Blanchard automatically served as a member of the
Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough council during his term as city councillor for Hochelaga. After becoming mayor of Montreal, he automatically became mayor of the
Ville-Marie borough council.
His legacy as interim mayor of Montreal was approving "a piece of art in Montreal North
hich causedsome debate over its $1.1 million price tag."
[ ]
Executive committee membership
Source
Executive Committee City of Montreal, accessed 11 July 2013.
Electoral record
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanchard, Laurent
1952 births
Living people
People from Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
Mayors of Montreal