Denis Coderre says he will run again for mayor of Montreal
In long-foreshadowed announcement, ex-mayor says he and his team can lead city's rebirth
It was an announcement that surprised nobody: after weeks of buildup, former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre officially declared his intention Sunday night to run for mayor in next fall's municipal election.
Coderre appeared on on Radio-Canada's Tout le monde en parle, saying that a long period of introspection following his defeat by the current mayor, Valérie Plante, had restored him and prepared him to lead the city once again.
"I'm not running against Valérie Plante," Coderre said. "I'm running for Montreal."
Coderre's announcement was not a surprise to anyone even vaguely aware of Montreal politics, with hints mounting over previous weeks — perhaps most clearly in the form of his new book, Retrouver Montréal, which presents a vision for the city's future.
Plante, who called the ongoing speculation about Coderre's intentions a "striptease" in a Radio-Canada interview earlier this month, welcomed him to the race in a tweet on Sunday evening.
"You can't say we didn't expect it," she wrote.
On ne peut pas dire qu’on ne s’y attendait pas! Blague à part, je souhaite la bienvenue à <a href="https://twitter.com/DenisCoderre?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DenisCoderre</a> dans la course. Je suis impatiente de pouvoir débattre avec vous, de notre vision pour Montréal. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/polmtl?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#polmtl</a>
—@Val_PlanteCoderre said that Montreal had lately lost its lustre. "We don't get the feeling that this is a metropolis," he said.
He said he had evolved from the man sometimes accused of being a micromanager and would be a "member of the team" this time around.
"I know I had a very bad final year," Coderre said, referring to his term as mayor. "But with my team we're in a position to give this city a renaissance. What is most important is that this isn't the story of one man. We will do this as a team."
On the housing crisis, Coderre said that higher density housing — "I'm not talking about skyscrapers" — would help bring life back to some areas. He said the relationship between the city and the police service needed to be reinvented, and diverse voices needed to be present in decisions and discussions about culture, education and power.
Coderre was mayor from 2013 to 2017. Plante defeated Coderre in Nov. 2017, becoming the first woman to serve as Montreal's mayor.
Projet Montréal won the majority of the 65 seats on city council, with 34 of its candidates elected, compared to 25 for Équipe Denis Coderre.
Coderre announced he would quit municipal politics in his concession speech, and the party named for him renamed itself Ensemble Montréal in early 2018.
Coderre will run with the Ensemble Montréal party. In a statement released Sunday evening, the party's interim leader, Coun. Lionel Perez, said he was "very happy" to have Coderre rejoin, and that he would convene a special caucus "very quickly."