Comeback for Coderre? ‘They’re still calling me Mr. Mayor’

Two weeks after granting a wideranging interview on French-language television in the wake of his electoral defeat to Valérie Plante, Denis Coderre took to the airwaves in English Wednesday, telling CJAD morning man Andrew Carter that even though his loss of the mayoralty stung, he has no regrets about his record at city hall.

“They’re still calling me Mr. Mayor,” Coderre said when asked about his upset defeat to Plante last November. “That’s interesting. It means we had an impact.”

As he did in the French-language interview, although in less detail, Coderre noted that family problems coincided with the municipal election campaign, saying that “2017 was a bad year personally. I had some … family issues. I don’t want to say that’s why I lost, of course.”

In the earlier interview, Coderre explained how his reporting credit

card fraud led him to discover his son, who would later face charges in connection with incident, suffered from online addiction.

However, Coderre acknowledged there was a diversity of opinion on why he only lasted for one term at city hall. “There are some people who may have a different definition of the (how the campaign unfolded). Some people who felt I was too arrogant.”

But the 54-year-old former federal cabinet minister had no doubt about his making a difference at city hall. Nor did Coderre dismiss the possibility of another run at city hall. “We will see. The sense of duty is in my DNA. I was in public (life) for 35 years — as an MP, a minister, as a mayor. It’s an option. I’m not closing the door. But there are different ways to serve your city, your province or your country.”