CITY COUNCIL DOYENNE
While there is debate over who claims the title ‘dean of city council,’ Michèle D. Biron is the longest-serving female councillor among Montreal’s 103 politicians.
Michèle D. Biron and Dominic Perri may be harbouring the best-kept secret in Montreal politics.
They are the longest-serving councillors among Montreal’s 103 politicians, beating councillor Marvin Rotrand, who claims he owns that title, by one week.
Perri and Biron were first elected in St-Léonard and St-Laurent, respectively, on Nov. 7, 1982, when the two present-day boroughs were independent suburbs.
Since the mergers, Perri has served as a city councillor on Montreal city council as well as on the council of his borough. Biron has served as a borough-level councillor, sitting on the St-Laurent borough council.
“I keep saying I’m at the end of my career, but the end never comes,” Biron said, laughing.
Biron, who turned 82 on Nov. 5, the day she was elected to her 10th consecutive mandate, may be the longest-serving female politician in Quebec, never mind the city. A local MNA told her a few years ago she had served continuously longer than any female politician at the municipal and provincial levels, she said.
Biron was also one of the first two women elected to St-Laurent council in 1982 and was the first woman to be named to its executive committee.
“I took my place without knocking down doors,” she said. “You have to respect that we’re all human beings and that in politics, everyone has their place.”
Before entering politics, Biron had worked on Expo 67, organizing state breakfasts with the protocol office. She took time off from the paid workforce when she had two children, and then worked as credit manager for a truck manufacturer after her children entered school.
She launched her political career at a time when the Parti Québécois government had been calling for more women to enter politics. The mayor of Ville St-Laurent at the time, Marcel Laurin, reached out to her, she said, because she and her husband had volunteered on his campaigns and for the Liberals.
Unlike a number of women pioneers in politics, Biron said she had an easy entry and found her male colleagues welcoming. She recalled one unusual accommodation, though.
“When I arrived, Mayor Laurin said (to the other councillors): ‘From now on, boys, we have to speak nicely because we have a woman among us,’ ” Biron said. “But he always treated me well.”
Perri, a former high school science teacher, said his 35 years in office have taught him to be adaptable and to recognize that projects and ideas require longer-term thinking than most administrations are willing or able to give.
A councillor also has to be willing to listen to the people, Perri, 70, added, “because ultimately the people ... have the last word.”
That was clearly the case with Valérie Plante’s defeat of incumbent mayor Denis Coderre in the most recent Montreal election, he said.
Perri and Biron are members of Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal, which lost its majority to Plante’s Projet Montréal party.
Perri said he believes voters were sending a message that they want the city administration to respect the distinctive character of each borough.
“The past administration (of Coderre) tended to harmonize things, which means let’s do the same thing for everyone,” he said. “It’s OK for certain files, but not for everything.”
Now, Perri said, “The people have spoken. They want to keep their neighbourhoods.”
Being an adaptable politician means being open to the new administration, he added.
“It’s a new beginning. I want to give Madame Plante and the new executive all the chances,” Perri said. “If they do all that they’ve said, then there will be many points that we can agree on.”
Alas, there’s no medal for being the longest-serving on the 65-member city council or among the larger group of 103 borough and city councillors in Montreal.
The city archives department says the “dean of city council” title doesn’t exist.
Even so, Rotrand publicly calls himself “dean of council,” including in his Twitter profile.
Rotrand was elected one week after Biron and Perri, on Nov. 14, 1982, in what is today the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Damede-Grâce and what was then part of the old city of Montreal.
The old city and the old island suburbs disappeared on Jan. 1, 2002 when the provincially legislated mergers created a new city.
Perri said he was surprised to be told by a reporter this week that he has one week seniority over Rotrand. Perri said he has never compared the dates of the 1982 St Léonard and Montreal elections.
“Oh wow, it’s nice to find out,” Perri said, adding that he has teased Rotrand about claiming to be “dean of city council” on social media when he is not the only politician in Montreal who has 35 consecutive years of service.
“I sent a tweet to him last time — I replied to one of his tweets — and I said, ‘Marvin, you have company,’ ” Perri said, laughing.
However, Rotrand claims he’s the dean of council because Perri’s premerger years of service don’t count.
“No, technically Mr. Perri is not the dean of city council, as a simple call to (City Clerk Yves) Saindon will confirm,” Rotrand, 66, said this week. “Mr. Perri only arrived at the city of Montreal in the election of 2001, and as far as the city counts it, he’s only been on council for 16 years.
“As far as the clerk is concerned, I’m the dean of city council.”
However, city spokesperson Gonzalo Nunez said in an email that the city “didn’t determine who’s dean of city council.”
Nunez provided the dates of Perri and Rotrand’s first elections and inaugurations — Perri was also inaugurated four days before Rotrand in 1982.
Nunez then wrote: “These two elected officials now sit on the city of Montreal council that was constituted following the (2002) mergers.”
But Rotrand is adamant, adding that Coderre acknowledged during his first council meeting in 2013 that Rotrand was the longest-serving member.
“And that’s why I sat in the chair as president (speaker) of the meeting until the council approved Frantz Benjamin as the president (speaker),” Rotrand said.
He then added that he’s not being competitive. “In any event, I don’t make a big issue out of it ... I just feel that my years of experience have given me some insights and I hope to share those with all of my colleagues, particularly new ones, given that I’ve been trying to promote a less partisan council.”
Perri, for his part, laughed about the non-contest. He has, after all, gone this long without claiming the title.