Denis Coderre elected mayor of Montreal

Video: Montreal Mayor-elect Denis Coderre reaches out to all Montrealers during his victory speech

MONTREAL – The stewardship of a scandal-afflicted city has now been entrusted to Denis Coderre, the back-slapping political populist who was elected Sunday as mayor of Montreal.

Coderre’s knack for grabbing attention has followed him from the federal arena, where he was a perennial purveyor of high-publicity causes and built a huge online following while live-tweeting Montreal Canadiens games.

The former minister and party organizer for the federal Liberals held a five-percentage-point edge in his first attempt at municipal politics.

Polls all year showed Coderre ahead of his lesser-known rivals but the final result wound up tighter than expected, as he took just under 32 per cent of the ballots cast on a day when a clear majority of eligible voters chose to stay home.

Coderre took to the stage just before midnight, hoisting the city flag before speaking. He defended the battered reputation of Canada’s second-biggest city.

“We have a magnificent city. It is one of the most beautiful metropolises in the world,” Coderre told a cheering crowd.

“This is not a crisis,” he said, referring to ongoing ethics scandals. “This is an exceptional opportunity to demonstrate that we belong among the greats.”

He has promised to create an inspector-general’s position at city hall and be a more forceful advocate for local issues, in the style of other big-personality mayors and in sharp contrast to the lower-key types who recently held the position in Montreal.

Coderre complimented his opponents and pledged to co-operate with opposition parties, who will have more council seats than his. “The message today is clear, for me: On the one hand, people wanted Denis Coderre as mayor. On the other hand they asked us, at city council, to work together.”

A persistent question of the campaign, though, was whether Coderre was really the best-suited candidate to clean up Canada’s second-biggest city.

The last two mayors have resigned in scandal, the most recent one was arrested on fraud charges, and a disheartening drip of kickback and bid-rigging allegations have corroded locals’ trust in city hall. Coderre’s supporters insist he’s the right guy for the job.

“He has the political experience,” said Meme Noel, who came to cheer on Coderre with a friend, Sherly Severe.

“He’s never been involved in a scandal in all these years, so I don’t see why he would get into trouble as mayor.”

Severe added that she’s excited to have a mayor that’ll be accessible — both in person, and on social media.

Another supporter, when asked if Coderre has what it takes, seemed almost surprised the question was asked: “Oh yes,” said William Quianbao, 65. “He has a strong personality and he’s very imposing.”

That high-wattage persona began flickering at an early age, when he was raised in the community of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, northeast of Montreal.

Coderre recently joked in an interview with The Canadian Press that, when he was five years old, instead of being prescribed Ritalin, he was invited by an exhausted teacher to burn off some energy by delivering speeches in front of his class.

He talked his way onto television as a boy by declaring he’d encountered a possible UFO.

Years later, as a federal politician, he talked his way onto an Afghan military base. When he was the Liberal defence critic in 2007, he went to Kandahar without a government invite and all but forced his way onto the base, and kept media back home abreast of his adventures along the way.

He became embroiled in a defamation lawsuit and counter-suit with NHL star Shane Doan following 2005 reports of a slur against French-Canadian linesmen.

His accomplishments as minister for sports included a successful lobbying effort to bring the World Anti-Doping Agency agency headquarters to Montreal, and he was then promoted to minister of immigration by Jean Chretien before serving different roles in Paul Martin’s cabinet.

Coderre’s share of the vote was about 32 per cent to 27 per cent for Melanie Joly, a fellow federal Liberal and a political newcomer who began her campaign in such obscurity that she was initially barred from participating in debates.

The political rookie forced her way into the debates in the final weeks as polls showed she’d become the principal threat to Coderre.

Joly said a low-budget, social-media-driven campaign like hers would have been impossible four years ago. She applauded the democratizing power of the Internet over traditional interests.

“We started with nothing,” said Joly, to a celebration of supporters akin to a victory rally.

“I hope our success has encouraged a new generation to get involved in politics.”

The third-place finisher, Richard Bergeron of the left-leaning Projet Montreal party, lauded Joly as a “rising star” of local, provincial or Canadian politics.

Across Quebec, voters hoped to turn the page on an era of scandal-ridden leadership in provincewide municipal elections.

The elections come as the province’s Charbonneau Commission continues to hear shocking testimony detailing a system of kickbacks and illegal party financing at the municipal level.

The longtime mayors of Montreal and the suburb of Laval were forced to step down a year ago amid corruption allegations.

READ MORE: Your guide to the Island of Montreal’s 2013 municipal elections

Months later, their interim replacements resigned in scandal as well.

Coderre was the perceived frontrunner from the start, as a household name in Quebec. But he was dogged by attacks from his opponents on ethics issues, most notably his party’s ties to former members of the corruption-ridden, now-dissolved Union Montreal party.

One borough mayor aligned with Coderre’s ticket, Michel Bissonnet, was the subject of a two-page spread last weekend in Montreal La Presse exploring his ties to key actors under the scrutiny of the province’s corruption commission. Still, Bissonnet won his St-Leonard borough with 65 per cent of the vote.

In total, there were elections in 1,100 cities and towns across the province.

In Quebec City, the city’s firebrand mayor, Regis Labeaume, was easily elected to a third term with nearly three-quarters of the popular vote.

Jean Tremblay, who has fought a legal battle for the right to pray at council meetings, was elected mayor of Saguenay for a fourth term.

Quebec’s minister of municipal affairs, Sylvain Gaudreault, issued a statement urging more Quebecers to head to the polls this time around.

During the last municipal election, in 2009, voter turnout across the province was around 45 per cent. In Montreal, it was 39 per cent.

But the early turnout results appeared marginally higher than the last election.

Get Montreal election analysis, commentary and results via our live blog here.