Association: Coalition Montréal Marcel Côté, https://www.coalitionmtl.com/
As Marcel Côté’s pick for mayor of the borough of Verdun, Alain Tassé’s experience serves as both his biggest strength and a potential weakness.
As a current member of Montreal’s executive committee, the 56-year-old takes care of urban planning, economic development and water, a position that gives him a strong overview of how the borough of Verdun fits within the city of Montreal. Locally, he’s known for his strong advocacy of social housing and grass-roots community development.
In this mandate, he plans to prioritize the cultural life of Verdun through major projects like a new aquatic centre, the auditorium renovation, the Circus school expansion and the updating of Wellington Street. Making the entire borough universally-accessible is also important to his team.
Tassé has served as an active municipal politician since 1993, when he served as councillor for the then-city of Verdun. His strength as a strong spokesman in both French and English has served several municipal governments well, even when they made unpopular decisions, such as those that led to school overcrowding on Nun’s Island.
After serving as a borough councillor for seven years under the Union Montreal banner, he took a big risk to join five others and join Montreal’s executive council under Michael Applebaum’s leadership. He was also one of two local councillors called when UPAC raided Verdun borough hall.
His recent success at negotiating with Verdun-based members of Vision Montreal should help his campaign, especially now that he has two highly-respected members—André Julien and Françoise Gloutnay—on his team.
Team: Champlain Nun’s Island
André Julien, city councillor, https://www.coalitionmtl.com/en/our-candidates/verdun/andre-julien/
Paul Beaupré, borough councillor, https://www.coalitionmtl.com/en/our-candidates/verdun/paul-beaupre/
Jean-Pierre Boivin, borough councillor, https://www.coalitionmtl.com/en/our-candidates/verdun/jean-pierre-boivin/
Team: Desmarchais Crawford
Françoise Gloutnay, city councillor, https://www.coalitionmtl.com/en/our-candidates/verdun/francoise-gloutnay/
Monique Trudel, borough councillor, https://www.coalitionmtl.com/en/our-candidates/verdun/monique-trudel/
Rielle Lésvesque, borough councillor, https://www.coalitionmtl.com/en/our-candidates/verdun/rielle-levesque/
July 11, 2013
Alain Tassé Joins Marcel Coté Team
Alain Tassé will run as Verdun mayor under the Marcel Coté banner in the municipal election in November.
He likes that Coté plans to run a coalition government in which candidates from opposing viewpoints can work together.
The more time goes by, the more we are working by consensus. I want to continue this coalition philosophy, this way of doing politics. This is what Marcel Coté offers.”
Likes Coalition Model
Tassé appreciates the coalition model he has worked under since he joined the executive council formed by Michael Applebaum last November. He says it works better at the municipal level than legislative assembly style politics does.
Before the coalition, the mayor would stand and speak on a dossier and it would be difficult to vote against the mayor if you were in Union Montreal. I don’t want to exaggerate, because Gérald was not like that. It happened sometimes that some of us voted against the mayor and none of us were sanctioned, but there was unease in the caucus. There was grumbling. In the opposition, they studied a file and they said that they were okay with it, but they voted against it anyway. So they were uneasy too.”
He says discussions with councillors who have opposing philosophies takes longer, but he believes the extra time leads to better decisions. “Most of the time, we get to consensus very easy. On the major topics, we have to talk. I have to let go of something and someone else has to let go of something else, so that we can negotiate something we can both live with. Once in a while, we vote. That’s that. That’s the form of democracy, we’re in. I like this way of doing business.”
Tassé Plans to Model Bossé Style
Tassé says that what happened in the former city of Verdun under Mayor George Bossé could happen in Montreal now.
I was elected in 1993 and I worked for one year under George Bossé,” he said. “There was a party, but it was only a party for the campaign to get financing and to have a unique platform and unique colours, but George Bossé put up a team of people with many different backgrounds and many different areas of expertise. We complimented each other. I came from community organizations in housing. Someone else was a merchant. Someone else had sports. We did not have the same political views. I was a left winger and some of us were quite right wingers…What I liked from that team—we were fourteen then, 13 councillors and one Mayor—every one of us in our respective expertise was even stronger than the others, even than the mayor. That made George Bossé a strong mayor and I’d like to duplicate that. I’ve always liked team work and to be surrounded by strong people.”
Six Others to Run with Tassé
In the last month or so, Tassé has finalized a team of six other people interested in running in Verdun with him. Some were elected to council under the Union Montreal banner and others are new to local politics. They aren’t quite ready to launch their campaign in Verdun, but plan to do so soon.
We have not announced yet mostly because we are not sure of how we will go,” said Tassé during an interview last Thursday night. “Will we form a local party? Will we want to join a political party, called say Coalition Montreal, and present candidates under that banner? Or will each of us run as independents and support each other?”
Verdun Vision to Come
For now, they’re focussing their discussions on their vision for Verdun.
You have to have a vision of how is it going to look in twenty years from now if I start working on it now. That’s what I want to do.”
For more information on Tassé or to contact him, refer to his City of Montreal elected official page at: http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=5798,85809754&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&id=101235589
Note: This article appeared on page 9 of the Suburban on Wednesday, July 10.
This Mr. Tassé is what we call a BAUM (Born Again Union Montréal) who has seen the light.
If you tell me who your friends are will it say something about you?
Mr. Tassé who claims to be a “gestionnaire d’immeubles” (real estate manager) wants to emulate George Bossé whose business is real estate consulting for major promoters. Oh, did I mention that Mr. Bossé founded Union Montréal along with Mr. Zampino (the guy from the Charbonneau Commission). While Mr. Bossé was mayor of Verdun, he allowed promoters to build lots of condos on Nuns’ Island. But, no land was set aside for schools, librarys and stuff like that. Boy, the revenues from taxes that condos generate were just great!
Then Mr. Tassé joined Claude Trudel who took over Mr. Bossé’s job as mayor of Verdun. Mr. Tassé helped Mr. Trudel ensure that promoters built lots of condos on Nuns’ Island. But, no land was reserved for schools, librarys and stuff like that. So when citizens became fed up with the Trudel/Tassé lack of planning, they blocked a school project that would have destroyed the Island’s oldest mature park. What a defeat! And, what about the fact that people were asking why Catcan was getting all the construction contracts from Verdun. Then with that pesty Charbonneau Commission again, Mr. Trudel’s old buddy, Gérald Tremblay resigned. Now friendless, Mr. Trudel resigned too, leaving Mr. Tassé friendless.
Being a political animal, Mr Tassé became really palsy with Mr. AppleBAUM. Of course we all know what happened to him… UPAC got involved and he resigned – some sort of real estate deal I think.
So here we go again, Mr. Tassé wants a new buddy. Well, if I were Mr. Côté I’d be weary of the “Tassé curse”. Whenever he gets too close to powerful men they seem to leave political life very suddenly. Maybe he’s really an undercover agent pretending to be a politician 🙂
Hi Marty,
Thanks for commenting. I’m guessing that you don’t like condos much, eh? To be fair, Mr. Tassé didn’t tell me he wanted to emulate Bossé’s career outside of politics. He said he liked his limited use of political parties and his willingness to work with a diverse group of people. Hopefully, he’ll respond to your comment further himself; if not now, then during the campaign. Keep reading too; I plan to interview all the mayoralty candidates who will be willing to meet with me.