Montreal Citizens' Movement
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The Montreal Citizens' Movement (MCM, or RCM) was a
municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...
political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
in
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. It existed from 1973 to 2001.


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 The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...
(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 Nikolaus 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 and politician from Montreal, Quebec. He was the fa ...
,
Louise Harel Louise Harel ( ; born April 22, 1946) is a Quebec politician. In 2005 she served as interim leader of the Parti Québécois following the resignation of Bernard Landry. She was also interim leader of the opposition in the National Assembly ...
, later a member of the Provincial government, and other activists who were not satisfied with the management style of the administration
Jean Drapeau Jean Drapeau (; 18 February 1916 – 12 August 1999) was a Canadian politician who served as mayor of Montreal for 2 non-consecutive terms from 1954 to 1957 and from 1960 to 1986. Major accomplishments of the Drapeau Administration include ...
. While FRAP had seen itself as a radical social movement as well as a municipal political party, the MCM defined itself as a party with firm community roots.


Opposition to Jean Drapeau

Eighteen of the party's candidates were elected to
City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
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
Nick Auf der Maur Nikolaus 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 and politician from Montreal, Quebec. He was the fa ...
and Robert Keaton founded the ''Municipal Action Group'' () with a group of dissidents, which split the opposition vote. In 1978, the total elected opposition in city council consisted of 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 A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...
and became the City Councillor of the district of Saint-Jean-Baptiste.


The Doré administration and its accomplishments

Drapeau retired in 1986. By this time, his
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was seen as tired and complacent after 26 years in power. Additionally, Drapeau didn't have a clear successor. The MCM took full advantage, and seized control of the city at the 1986 elections in a comprehensive victory. Doré was handily elected as mayor by a nearly 3-to-1 margin, while the RCM took 55 seats on council. The MCM Executive Committee consisted of Michael Fainstat, Chairman, 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; 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, Marvin Rotrand, and Pierre Goyer quit the party, accusing Doré of cozying up to powerful interests and betraying the MCM notion of reform. (They would later found the
Democratic Coalition of Montreal Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...
(Coalition démocratique de Montréal). Doré had lost also much anglophone support by encouraging the enforcement of the controversial anti-English sign law Bill 178, 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 Île Sainte-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 first public commissions at 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. The party was also badly damaged by the Overdale fiasco.


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, City Councillor Thérèse Daviau left the party and announced that she would support Jacques Duchesneau - a former police chief and future member of the National Assembly of Quebec - for Mayor. Thérèse Daviau quitte le RCM, Radio-Canada, April 27, 1998
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 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 ...
'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.


Mayoral candidates

Victories are indicated with bold
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.


Footnotes

{{Authority control Municipal political parties in Montreal Defunct political parties in Canada