Veteran city councillor Marvin Rotrand has been elected as interim leader of the opposition Coalition Montréal following the resignation on Monday of party chief Benoit Dorais.
Dorais, mayor of the Sud-Ouest borough, said he would begin the New Year as an independent city councillor.
Rotrand, who was first elected in Snowdon district in 1982, proposed on Thursday to hold a party convention in May to adopt a strategy for next years’s November municipal election.
“Should Coalition Montréal ally itself with another party?” Rotrand asked in a statement, suggesting one possibility for the convention. “Our executive committee believes in the importance of ensuring the existence of a third political force in Montreal. On the other hand, certain members of the party believe that merging with another party would help us reach our goals.”
Coalition Montréal was founded under the late Marcel Côté, an economist who ran unsuccessfully against Denis Coderre in the November 2013 election. Since that election, of the six members of Coalition Montréal, only half are still there.
Rotrand announced that remaining Coalition Montréal councillors Réal Ménard and Elsie Lefebvre will continue to vote with the city’s executive committee to exercise their political influence, and that he would support the Coderre administration in matters regarding public transit.
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Coalition Montréal’s dwindling numbers
Fate of the six councillors elected in the 2013 municipal election (the party did not elect any borough councillors):
- Russell Copeman (mayor, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce): Joined Équipe Denis Coderre Nov. 4, 2016
- Benoit Dorais (mayor, Sud-Ouest): Elected leader June 16, 2014; Became independent Dec. 26, 2016
- Elsie Lefebvre (councillor, Villeray-St-Michel-Parc-Extension): Remains with party
- Réal Ménard (mayor, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve): Remains with party
- Domenico Moschella (councillor, St-Léonard): Died June 23, 2015
- Marvin Rotrand (councillor, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce): Remains with party, elected interim leader Dec. 29, 2016
