THE TWO SIDES OF DENIS CODERRE
His supporters say he’s a straight shooter who knows politics and gets things done. His critics call him controlling, arrogant and condescending. Almost everyone agrees his brusque manner could use some polish. René Bruemmer takes a closer look at the man
On a bright Thursday in September, Denis Coderre moves through the dining room of the Sommet de la Rive seniors residence in Verdun, cracking jokes, leaning in for a two-cheek kiss, getting on one knee for a photo with a resident in a wheelchair.
“Did you miss me?” he asks. “Are you well?”
“This is the best crowd I’ve ever seen,” he quips.
The crowd laughs, old hands at electoral humour. White-haired residents line up with smartphones to take selfies.
This is a common sight with the incumbent mayor of Montreal. On this day, in his 11th electoral campaign, he will visit two seniors residences, a homeless centre, Ste-Catherine and Crescent Sts., a forum on elderly abuse, small businesses on Wellington St., a Bangladeshi event and a cancer fundraiser.
Interspersed are three meetings, one with the governor of Maryland.
Coderre says he sleeps four hours a night. He loves the work, but regrets the time away from his wife and two children, 21 and 24.
Interacting with people gives him energy, he says. He seems to enjoy it.
“I support him 100 per cent,” Georgette Natte-Lavoie says at the seniors residence. “He’s a man who is not scared to say what he thinks. I find him human.”
Her partner Hugh Brown, an exceptionally fit 91-year-old, comes to shake hands.
“Jesus Murphy, you’re 91?” Coderre exclaims. “What’s your secret — brandy?”
“He’s getting the job done,” Brown says of Coderre. “That’s the kind of guy you want.”
Then, in the next breath, Brown adds: “Of course, I can’t drive my car, because it’s a parking lot in this city.”
“When it’s election time, they come talk to us,” Natte-Lavoie says. “Then they don’t come back for four years.”
Such is the world of municipal politics, where even among fans, everyone’s a critic.
Such mixed feelings are emblematic of what is often expressed about Coderre — satisfaction that things are getting done tinged with serious reservations about his choices and how he carries them out.
Coderre is riding a wave of positive news in a city long resigned to hearing the opposite.
Unemployment is historically low, tourism records are being set and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal are writing about Montreal’s booming luxury-residence market. Coderre adds as well that municipal corruption headlines that dominated the news cycle before his arrival at city hall have largely quieted.
“The pride is back,” Coderre insists from the front seat of his chauffeur-driven Toyota SUV. (“It’s a hybrid — note that,” he says with a chuckle.)
“I think Montreal is living an exceptional time. There are 150 construction cranes in the city representing $25 billion in investments. Unemployment is at its lowest level since before 1976. There is a level of confidence that will bring us to new heights…
“What’s been done in the last four years — it took previous administrations 15 years to do.”
Coderre lists as his administration’s main accomplishments heavy spending on infrastructure, the coming light-rail system, the creation of the corruption-busting inspector general’s department and increased metropolitan-status powers won from Quebec he says will allow for things like more social housing and subsidies for small businesses crippled by the city’s road construction.
(About that: “Yes, traffic’s a problem,” he says, “but it’s going to get better, in particular by 2020.”)
Tempering his get-it-done reputation, however, are mounting concerns about his style. He’s overly controlling, critics say, and acts impetuously without sufficient consultation.
This has drawn flak for some high-profile pricey projects associated with Montreal’s 375th birthday celebrations, including the federally subsidized $39.5-million lighting of the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
Then there were the granite stumps on Mount Royal — public art, the city says — for $3.5 million, and the Formula E electric car race that clogged downtown streets for weeks at a cost of at least $24 million.
(Montrealers won’t know the full price of the ePrix till after the election, adding lack of transparency to the list of concerns.)
His administration’s handling of animal-related files like the city’s pit bull ban or its recent urban rodeo has incited significant ire.
“It’s like he’s on the power trip he’s dreamed of all his life, throwing his weight around like he owns the place,” Globe and Mail columnist Konrad Yakabuski wrote.
On the other hand, some contend a healthy dose of ego is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Composed of 19 boroughs ranging from densely packed urban centres to quiet suburban enclaves like Île-Bizard and Anjou, Montreal isn’t easy to run, former Westmount mayor Peter Trent says.
“Coderre is good at straddling the huge differences between the far-flung ex-suburbs and the downtown core,” he says.
“It’s awfully hard to imagine somebody who is not arrogant could actually run the city or be mayor. The fact he has a strong personality — he has a lot of warts, but it also means he’s not afraid to take things on.”
Under former mayor Gérald Tremblay, who “saw no evil,” corruption flourished, Trent says.
“I’d rather have arrogance than timidity,” he says.
Coderre stood up to the city’s powerful civil service unions and reined in ballooning pension payments. He is not afraid to surround himself with intelligent people, Trent says, and has assembled the strongest executive committee the city has seen in years.
He has also attracted opposition party members into his ranks, some of them powerful borough mayors, slowly bringing his party from a minority to majority status in city council.
Trent gives Coderre high marks despite the Montreal 375 “cockup,” his penchant for being overly political and moves to centralize numerous municipal services, giving the central city more control over snow-clearing, human resources, information technology, parking policies, labour negotiations, building management and large-scale zoning — all at the expense of the boroughs.
“Coderre’s ego is something we need to worry about in the next mandate,” Trent adds. “He needs someone in his administration who can serve as an ego-restraining device.”
Coderre likes to say he started in politics in kindergarten, when his teacher had him deliver weekly speeches to tame his hyperactivity. (“There was no Ritalin.”)
At 15, he won a speech-writing contest based on the open-ended question: “Despite my youth, I foresee…”
Coderre ended the sentence: “becoming a politician.”
At 17, he worked for then-premier René Lévesque on the Yes campaign in the 1980 sovereignty referendum, then switched to the federalist side when he went to study in Ottawa. He has a BA in political science and an MBA.
He ran unsuccessfully as a federal Liberal candidate three times, including a spirited campaign against Gilles Duceppe in a 1990 byelection.
That night, Duceppe recalls, he was driving to his parents’ home when a minivan came up from behind, the driver honking his horn. It was Coderre, coming to congratulate him.
“I always appreciated that,” Duceppe says.
They would insult each other regularly in the House of Commons — Coderre the Liberal MP for the Montreal North riding of Bourrassa, Duceppe the leader of the separatist Bloc Québécois — but remained friendly outside of chambers. They still call each other.
Coderre served 16 years before leaving to run as mayor of Montreal. He’s been effective at bringing together people of all political stripes, including federalists and separatists, making for a stronger party, Duceppe says.
“He’s someone who wants to change things, who brings ideas,” he says. “He has a lot of spontaneity, but he has to control that.”
Coderre says his brand of politics is never personal, but some disagree.
Former Projet Montréal leader Luc Ferrandez told the National Post he remembers Coderre saying: “Luc, I’m a very nice guy, we’re going to work together, but you don’t even say one thing against me in the media, because you’re going to pay the price.”
Coderre has twice complained to the chief of Montreal’s police force, which he controls, of journalist investigations into his personal affairs, which led to police investigations of the journalists in an attempt to find the leaks.
At 54, Coderre says he’s learned to be less partisan. Issues are debated and decided in caucus, he says. However, sources within his administration say elected officials and bureaucrats have learned to keep opposing views to themselves or risk being shot down publicly.
“There is a strong sense of leadership, and the leader knows what he wants,” one official says. “The climate has not been one to cast a wide net and develop good public policy.”
Coderre says one of his greatest strengths is that of a rassembleur, teaming up with other Quebec municipalities and linking with Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume, as well as cities throughout Canada and internationally.
It has been a prescient move, says Danielle Pilette, urban studies professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Long ignored by provincial and federal governments because it’s a Liberal stronghold, Montreal has become powerful by allying itself with the swing ridings surrounding it and in the Quebec City region.
And making friends with the mayors of cities like Toronto, Seoul, Paris and Lyon has given the city legitimacy on the local and international stage, Pilette says.
“Montreal is experiencing a momentum it hasn’t seen since 2002,” she says.
Coderre would tend to agree. He doesn’t expect to win over all voters, but he’s hoping he has won over enough.
“I understand that every case can be improved, that you will never be unanimous in any decision,” he says.
“But sometimes to govern is to choose. As long as you make sure you meet the desires of the majority, that’s it.”
Next week: A portrait of Valérie Plante Oct. 21: The return of Jean Fortier