Denis Coderre Is Quitting Politics (Again) After Getting Whooped By Valérie Plante (Again)
The former mayor had a poor showing in the election.
Oops, he did it again. Denis Coderre announced that he will be quitting politics at a short press conference at his campaign headquarters on Friday afternoon.
"I'm quitting political life and I will not be head of the opposition," said Coderre.
The former and would-be mayor ran his campaign with plenty of promises, a lot of bravado, some flip-flops and a scandal peppered in for good measure.
In the last days of the campaign, Coderre was dogged by accusations about his lack of transparency over his past income. He never seemed to recover after that, progressively (regressively?) losing ground to Valérie Plante's Projet Montréal in polls leading up to Election Day.
In the mayoral vote, Coderre only attained 37.97% of the vote share and his Ensemble Montréal party was swept in many key boroughs by Projet Montréal.
In his 2017 campaign, Coderre also lost by a significant margin to Plante. He quit politics then, as well.
Today, Coderre was less than effusive about his future plans. "I'm going to do other things," he explained.
"Forty years in public life, 12 electoral campaigns, about 16 years in Ottawa... as mayor I contributed to the renaissance of Montreal after past corruption as you'll remember [...] I'm very proud of my team."
Despite being the official opposition at city hall, Ensemble Montréal is now left without a leader. Former party leader Lionel Perez also lost his seat in NDG and there's no clear succession path at the moment.
"Montreal is not a village, it's a large city with vibrant neighbourhoods [...] I love it with all my heart," said Coderre.
"We're looking towards the future and I'm very proud of what I was able to accomplish this past year."
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.