Coolopolis has a lot of compassion for city councillors. Nowadays you work about three hours a week and collect $75,000. But you really want to get onto the Executive Council so you try to figure up stunts that will get you off the backbenches and next thing you're gladhanding at random photo-ops like the Save the Tortoises Foundation and Aunts Against Meth Driving Knitting League Marathons.
So here's a list of the all-time best, and worst of the city of Montreal. Note that we don't include borough mayors, or politicians from municipalities that were not the official City of Montreal.
I've got to run some errands, so I'm writing this sorta quick, please put some comments in the box below and I'll improve the thing.
1-Herbert Ames, around 1890 this businessman got into city politics and wrote a series of books examining the detailed living conditions in Griffintown. He counted the number of bathrooms in each house and the whole shebang and even later built housing in the area on his own nickel.
2-Michael Fainstat - served nobly as a one-man opposition to the Drapeau steamroller when the city was soaked in Olympic debt.
3-Marcel Sevigny - a forward-looking thinker who penned a book and kicked some butt down in Lowerland, quit the Dore team along with a few others to protest the abusive demolition of Overdale.
4-Germain Pregent - This Civic Party councillor was a lounge singer before getting into St. Henry where everybody knew and respected him, a solid guy with a folksy style.
5-Frank Hanley - was a thorn in the side of Drapeau who coveted his embattled Griffintown/Point fiefdom. He'd ride down Wellington with boxing champs and also represented his district in the provincial levels. The area declined during his long reign and he was sometimes accused of sleaziness but he was a lively guy full of ideas.
6-Therese Daviau - a pioneering member of the MCM before they lost their lustre, she was elected in her twenties and quit to return to school and was back in between 1990-1998 before becoming an anti-gun advocate.
7-Jimmy McShane - Mr. Clean was an alderman from around 1875-1895 and was recognized as a rare unbribe-able councillor.
8-Gerry Snyder - Although this west end sports store merchant supported the regrettably-designed Decarie Expressway, he also helped get the Montreal Expos to this city, which was just about as good as it gets.
9-Arnold Bennett - An inexhaustible resource for embattled tenants for decades, he served as a councillor downtown for a few years, eventually getting beaten by Nick auf der Maur who credited the support from the then-not-empty Grey Nuns for the victory.
10-? - I shall leave this blank for reader's suggestions. I was thinking of putting that anglo guy whose name escapes me. He was in city council in the late 60s and later became a senator, from the Townships, he was a whirlwind of great ideas but I am blanking out on his name.
Now for the ahem.. least-good city councillor list
1- Sofoklis Rasoulis plead guilty of defrauding the municipal administration of $13,136 in 1989, then attempted a comeback in 2001 and lost but tried to block the victor Mary Deros by arguing in court that she wasn't using her legal name.
2-Konstantinos Georgoulis, City Councillor for Park Extension plead guilty of stealing $200,000 from the Hellenic Association in 1997.
3-Laurent Dugas, Verdun. This enthusiastic school administrator organized a balloon festival to bring some life to a sometimes too-quiet area but alas saw his career end abruptly when accused of sexually molesting a 17 year old in a single incident in October 2003. I'm not a big fan of Verdun city politics, by the way, and I have some first-hand knowledge of it.
4-Nick Auf der Maur. The well-loved man-about-town and city columnist didn't match up in his civic duties. Although he started off strong with an excellent book critiquing overspending in the Olympics, he eventually sold out his constituents by siding with the demolition of the Overdale neighbourhood, as a result 87 tenants saw their homes demolished for a parking lot.
5-Irving Grundman - the former Habs' GM became a councillor in St. Laurent which became Montreal during the one-island-one-city merger. During that time he was found guilty of accepting a large bribe from a construction company along with his partner Rene Dussault. Grundman, then 76, was sentenced to 23 months probation in 2005.
6-Montreal city councillor Robert Gagnon managed a Caisse Populaire which gave out bizarre loans, leading the province to take over its management in 1996.
List to be completed later.. still mulling over whether these belong:
Line Hamel - As Jose Theodore learned, the sins of the father shall be passed down to the son, and you've got to feel a bit bad for Line Hamel, whose father went around asking for bribes. Her father was busted in 2007 for asking for a $75,000 kickback from a developer, presumably because he would then be able to get his daughter to put it through. Her career ended soon after, possibly through no fault of her own.
Robert Magnan, tavern owner who arranged for there to be no other taverns allowed open near the one he owned.
So here's a list of the all-time best, and worst of the city of Montreal. Note that we don't include borough mayors, or politicians from municipalities that were not the official City of Montreal.
I've got to run some errands, so I'm writing this sorta quick, please put some comments in the box below and I'll improve the thing.
 |
| Ames |
 |
| Fainstat |
3-Marcel Sevigny - a forward-looking thinker who penned a book and kicked some butt down in Lowerland, quit the Dore team along with a few others to protest the abusive demolition of Overdale.
4-Germain Pregent - This Civic Party councillor was a lounge singer before getting into St. Henry where everybody knew and respected him, a solid guy with a folksy style.
 |
| Hanley |
5-Frank Hanley - was a thorn in the side of Drapeau who coveted his embattled Griffintown/Point fiefdom. He'd ride down Wellington with boxing champs and also represented his district in the provincial levels. The area declined during his long reign and he was sometimes accused of sleaziness but he was a lively guy full of ideas.
6-Therese Daviau - a pioneering member of the MCM before they lost their lustre, she was elected in her twenties and quit to return to school and was back in between 1990-1998 before becoming an anti-gun advocate.
 |
| McShane |
7-Jimmy McShane - Mr. Clean was an alderman from around 1875-1895 and was recognized as a rare unbribe-able councillor.
8-Gerry Snyder - Although this west end sports store merchant supported the regrettably-designed Decarie Expressway, he also helped get the Montreal Expos to this city, which was just about as good as it gets.
9-Arnold Bennett - An inexhaustible resource for embattled tenants for decades, he served as a councillor downtown for a few years, eventually getting beaten by Nick auf der Maur who credited the support from the then-not-empty Grey Nuns for the victory.
10-? - I shall leave this blank for reader's suggestions. I was thinking of putting that anglo guy whose name escapes me. He was in city council in the late 60s and later became a senator, from the Townships, he was a whirlwind of great ideas but I am blanking out on his name.
Now for the ahem.. least-good city councillor list
1- Sofoklis Rasoulis plead guilty of defrauding the municipal administration of $13,136 in 1989, then attempted a comeback in 2001 and lost but tried to block the victor Mary Deros by arguing in court that she wasn't using her legal name.
2-Konstantinos Georgoulis, City Councillor for Park Extension plead guilty of stealing $200,000 from the Hellenic Association in 1997.
3-Laurent Dugas, Verdun. This enthusiastic school administrator organized a balloon festival to bring some life to a sometimes too-quiet area but alas saw his career end abruptly when accused of sexually molesting a 17 year old in a single incident in October 2003. I'm not a big fan of Verdun city politics, by the way, and I have some first-hand knowledge of it.
4-Nick Auf der Maur. The well-loved man-about-town and city columnist didn't match up in his civic duties. Although he started off strong with an excellent book critiquing overspending in the Olympics, he eventually sold out his constituents by siding with the demolition of the Overdale neighbourhood, as a result 87 tenants saw their homes demolished for a parking lot.
5-Irving Grundman - the former Habs' GM became a councillor in St. Laurent which became Montreal during the one-island-one-city merger. During that time he was found guilty of accepting a large bribe from a construction company along with his partner Rene Dussault. Grundman, then 76, was sentenced to 23 months probation in 2005.
6-Montreal city councillor Robert Gagnon managed a Caisse Populaire which gave out bizarre loans, leading the province to take over its management in 1996.
List to be completed later.. still mulling over whether these belong:
Line Hamel - As Jose Theodore learned, the sins of the father shall be passed down to the son, and you've got to feel a bit bad for Line Hamel, whose father went around asking for bribes. Her father was busted in 2007 for asking for a $75,000 kickback from a developer, presumably because he would then be able to get his daughter to put it through. Her career ended soon after, possibly through no fault of her own.
Robert Magnan, tavern owner who arranged for there to be no other taverns allowed open near the one he owned.
"Georgoulis.. plead guilty of stealing $200,000 from the Hellenic Association in 1997."
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't what it appeared to be - not a typical embezzlement..
Goergoulis was on the Executive of the Hellenic Association. A few members were trying to get a Greek promoter to follow through with a project in Montreal. He needed some convincing collateral to proceed. The money was not to be spent, but to guarantee some activity. The only problem was that the full executive didn't vote the "temporary using" of the group's money.
As soon as word got out that the money had been irregularly withdrawn, every penny suddenly re-appeared. The matter was raised during the next Hellenic Association election campaign, but Georgoulis was re-elected. The losing candidrte kept harping on this and eventually got the police interested. When a charge was laid, Georgoulis pleaded guilty and resigned from City Council.
10 - not John Lynch Staunton?
ReplyDeleteI nominate Pierre Lachapelle, who was elected along with Jean Doré in Ahuntsic.
ReplyDeleteThe Doré administration was mostly run from a clique of the Plateau Mont-Royal, and they had put the preservation of the Mont Royal very high in their priorities.
So high that they saw nothing wrong in giving a huge city park to a developper. Here’s how:
A developper bought this sorry-looking but well situated plot of land at the corner of Pine and Redpath Crescent: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Montreal,+QC,+Canada&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=45.502387,-73.583872&spn=0.00338,0.004908&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=61.452931,80.419922&oq=montreal&vpsrc=6&hnear=Montreal,+Communaut%C3%A9-Urbaine-de-Montr%C3%A9al,+Quebec,+Canada&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=45.502387,-73.583872&panoid=kOk8EOvxiu2kGifIXoIuZg&cbp=12,314.66,,0,0.59
Doré wanted instead to integrate this totally irrelevant plot to the Mont-Royal park, and offered the developper to swap it for **A FULL THIRD** of the Ahuntsic park.
That’s the park that right south of the Henri-Bourassa Métro station: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Montreal,+QC,+Canada&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=45.555861,-73.667665&spn=0.027135,0.039268&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=61.452931,80.419922&oq=montreal&vpsrc=6&hnear=Montreal,+Communaut%C3%A9-Urbaine-de-Montr%C3%A9al,+Quebec,+Canada&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=45.555043,-73.667528&panoid=XUeqVrWp3u12-HU5NLt3-w&cbp=12,53.61,,0,-14.95
The project would have had a mini shopping-mall, a bus terminus, a huge underground parking lot (for Métro passengers) and a shitload of condos, to the tune of 8 stories high.
Needless to say, even though he was in the Doré party, city councillor Pierre Lachapelle stood for his constituents’ and not only fought against the proposal, but even won! The condo/shopping mall/parking project was never built, the park was totally relandscaped, and a new bus terminal was built (incidentally, save for the TCV, this is the absolute best bus terminal in Montréal — passengers can wait for their buses inside. Compare to the monstrosities elsewhere, such as Dorval, Fairfiew and Côte-Vertu who offer no meaningful shelter to bus riders. You see, Pierre Lachapelle is a former Transport-2000 president).
Pierre Lachapelle eventually fell to Bourque’s cohort of neantherthals, and for opposing “his” mayor AND winning, he is thoroughly blacklisted and, 20 years later, he is unable to secure any meaningful employment.
I back Line Hamel for the worst 10 list. Apart from her father's wrongdoings, she also fought hard in 2007 to reinstate an employee who had been sanctioned for alledged sexual harassment.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, she voted public subsidies for embelishments on Monk that directly benefited fellow Vision councillor Jean-Yves Cartier's son, who was bar owner on that street.
There was a song "When Jimmy McShane Gets Mayor"...although no reference to this anywhere through the usual Google search.
ReplyDeletePeabody
Le conseiller municipal Joseph Schubert, un Juif roumain, était un socialiste et un admirateur de Karl Marx . Élu au conseil municipal de Montréal en 1924, il était avocat le plus éminent du Conseil des droits des travailleurs. En 1931, il a construit un établissement de bains publics à l'angle de Bagg et Saint-Laurent, qui existe encore aujourd'hui comme le bain Schubert.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing Irving Grundman about 10 years ago at the Tim's in Norgate mall just across from Cote-Vertu metro station. He was showing off his 1979 Stanley Cup ring to some fawning admirers. I meant to tell them he should dedicate the ring to Sam Pollock, whose team he essentially inherited in the summer of '78. But I didn't want to ruin Irv's moment.
ReplyDelete