Published July 1 , 2009
By Martin C. Barry • TLN
The Mouvement Lavallois, one of two parties that hope to breathe new life into Laval municipal politics after decades of successive administrations led by incumbent mayor Gilles Vaillancourt and the Parti Pro des Lavallois, has issued a “manifesto” summarizing its views, prior to releasing a comprehensive platform before election day in November.

Vaillancourt criticized
About 120 people turned up for a rally the Mouvement held June 18 at a Curé Labelle Boulevard reception hall for the release of the statement. It criticizes the Vaillancourt team on a number of points, but laces into the administration most fiercely when claiming the regime has effectively “taken the city under control” and succeeded in suppressing all opposition at city hall for the past three decades.
“Constructive criticism and opposition have never been and will never be welcome at city hall with the current administration in place,” says the manifesto, collectively signed by Mouvement Lavallois members. “What’s more, for more than 30 years now, no official opposition has been able to emerge and remain in our city. A city of nearly 400,000 inhabitants! It is a shame!”

No mayoral candidate
According to David de Cotis, the Mouvement Lavallois’s president who is also running in the district of Saint-Bruno, the party hasn’t yet decided on a mayoral candidate. The party’s goal is to eventually have a candidate in each of Laval’s 21 electoral districts. When asked if he might be the party’s candidate for mayor, de Cotis did not rule out the possibility. “Never say no,” he said, while adding, “If I was thinking of going for mayor I would have started and presented myself as the candidate for mayor right from the beginning. But that’s not what who I want to be.”
However, at each of the events the Mouvement Lavallois has staged to now, de Cotis has clearly been the party’s main spokesperson. “I was elected. I am the president of the party. I created the party,” he explained. “But our party is very open, very transparent, and indeed it is a democracy. The party has elected me to be the spokesperson.” Some on the Mouvement Lavallois team have previously run for council in Laval, although none has succeeded. But de Cotis claims to have attracted serious potential support from some curious federal and provincial elected officials.

Previous PSC experience
At last week’s rally, an aide to Alfred-Pellan Bloc Québécois MP Robert Carrier was spotted in the audience. When de Cotis was asked by TLN whether he had any prior involvement in politics, he replied, “I’ve been involved on the sidelines,” without being specific. In a later interview, he acknowledged previously being a member of the Parti au Service du Citoyen, the party founded last year by Robert Bordeleau, who is running for mayor independently. Last October, de Cotis broke from the PSC, claiming Bordeleau lacked transparency.
Bordeleau has two lawsuits pending against de Cotis. One claims the PSC is owed $6,500 for party expenses incurred by de Cotis. The other claims $150,000 for libelous statements Bordeleau claims de Cotis made against him. Among other things, Bordeleau claims de Cotis based the Mouvement Lavallois’s political agenda on groundwork done by the PSC. De Cotis, meanwhile, has threatened legal action againt Bordeleau for alleged misuse of a group photo in which de Cotis appears, which was used on the PSC’s web site.
Regarding the lawsuits, de Cotis told TLN, "These are just attempts to unbalance our movement, our party. Before I started this party everything was cool, and as soon as he realized that this party really has a mission, a vision and momentum, that's when he started coming after me with various lawsuits. But I tried to resolve these lawsuits with him, to reach an agreement. It was refused. So it's now within the legal system and I'm not going to say more than that. My lawyer is very convinced that this won't go very far."