Projet victory took years of hard work
Valérie Plante’s upset victory on Sunday was a historic accomplishment, but especially remarkable considering just a few years ago, Projet Montréal was little more than a ragtag group of Plateau environmentalists.
Theories abound as to why a former federal minister was unable to fend off a one-term councillor for Montreal’s mayoralty, and they are not mutually exclusive: Denis Coderre’s stubbornness on files like Formula E, wasteful spending on other 375th anniversary events, the provocation of a ferocious animal rights lobby, or simply a career politician’s arrogance.
Without years of skilful political organization, however, Projet Montréal couldn’t have captured a majority of city council seats, giving Plante the opportunity to put her stamp on municipal policies.
Local politics in Montreal is rife with cynical electoral strategy and voter apathy. Turnout continues to decline, down to 42.46 per cent, almost a percentage point less than what it was in 2013. Montrealers are so exasperated with their oft-dysfunctional proximity government that more than 6,000 voted for a man who removed himself from the ticket, and 1,258 for a YouTube vlogger. Plante’s win, inspiring as it may be, is also partially due to increased apathy. There is no reason to assume that most Montrealers share Projet Montréal’s green sensibilities.
Richard Bergeron, the quirky cyclist, urban planner and now former city councillor, cofounded the party in 2004. Despite running against Coderre in 2013, he left his own outfit in 2014 and took an executive committee position with Coderre’s administration.
In 2005, he was the only party member elected to council, but that number grew to 14 by 2009, including borough councillors, and the party was able to take control of the trendsetting Plateau Mont-Royal borough.
The Plateau was an incubator for Bergeron’s municipal environmentalism, but much of that leadership would effectively be ceded to re-elected borough mayor and former interim leader Luc Ferrandez, whose passion and devoted base helped grow the party, expanding its reach to neighbouring boroughs.
There were years of growing pains, including run-ins with Plateau merchants over issues like reduced parking and irritating traffic-calming measures, culminating in 2010 with a city hall shouting match between Ferrandez and the head of a merchants’ association.
Male egos are a disproportionally powerful force in politics, but both Bergeron and Ferrandez set theirs aside at key moments when it became clear Projet Montréal could not win the mayoralty with either at the helm.
One of Coderre’s more effective slogans during the campaign warned of the “Plateau-ization” of Montreal, but evidently plenty of Montrealers viewed the borough as well-managed enough. The visual impact of shrub-filled green alleyways (an idea Coderre commandeered), abundant public art and design-forward intersections were a stark contrast to the Coderre administration’s disorganized orange cones interspersed with vanity infrastructure.
Team Coderre rested on its laurels, offering few original ideas as Projet Montréal was armed with a wealth of data and dedicated, long-time volunteers.
The post-Bergeron party became more sophisticated, effectively leveraging demographic research with campaign tools like NationBuilder, software popularized following successful Barack Obama and Donald Trump presidential campaigns.
A well-placed source at the party credits “active recruiting and research-based ideas,” inspired by data collected and contributors in academia. “All of that has been great, but if you don’t have the right person to deliver it, you’re dead. And without the volunteers, this can’t happen.”
Unlike Coderre, Projet Montréal proposed an industrious city-building project that required grassroots supporters to toil in obscurity for years, attending borough council meetings and having their ideas disregarded, even mocked by establishment politicians.
Plante beat Coderre at his own game, winning the personality contest cleanly, but the party behind her is no fly-by-night electioneering machine. Sunday’s result proves that even in the face of high cynicism, ordinary citizens making extraordinary efforts over long periods of time is still one way to win elections.