The Vision Montreal Crisis of 1997 was a severe political crisis 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 ...

, Canada. In January the mayor of Montreal, Pierre Bourque of the Vision Montreal Party, attempted to dismiss two fellow party members from the city's executive committee. This led several party members to defect, complicating governance and undermining party credibility for the remainder of Bourque's term.

Origins

In January 1997,

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Pierre Bourque tried to dismiss two members of Montreal's executive committee: Deputy Chairman

Sammy Forcillo Savino "Sammy" Forcillo is a retired Canadian politician and a former mayor of Ville-Marie borough in Montreal, Quebec. Background He has Italian ancestry and has a degree from the ''École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP)''. Civic Part ...

and Pierre Goyer. Yet, the city charter of 1921 clearly states that appointments to the executive committee are irrevocable. Forcillo and Goyer left

Vision Montreal Vision Montreal () 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. Origins Vision Montreal was e ...

(Bourque's party) to sit as independents, but exercised their right to stay on the committee. Therefore, management by consensus became nearly impossible to reach for the remainder of Bourque's term. That incident as well as allegations of authoritarian tendencies led thirteen other Vision Montreal councillors to leave the party and sit as independents with their colleagues of the opposition.

Consequences

By August 1997, only a minority of the council members (24 out of 51) were members of Vision Montreal and the credibility of the Bourque administration was undermined. La politique municipale à Montréal dans les années 1990 : du « réformisme populaire » au « populisme gestionnaire », Serge Belley, Érudit
/ref> Most of the defectors were supporters of Jacques Duchesneau's ''Nouveau Montréal'' party, but others backed

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 Students' union, student union fro ...

's ''Équipe Montréal'', the '' RCM'' or even came back to ''Vision Montreal'' briefly before the next election. The severity of the crisis was such that for a while it appeared to seriously affect Bourque's chances of re-election. Nonetheless, Bourque was re-elected in 1998, as were a substantial majority of his candidates.

Defectors

The defectors were: Members of the executive committee are indicated with bold

fonts In movable type, metal typesetting, a font is a particular #Characteristics, size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) inclu ...

References

{{Reflist Political history of Quebec 1997 in Montreal History of political parties in Canada Municipal political parties in Montreal 1997 in Canadian politics Political crisis Political controversies in Canada