Benoit Labonté
Encyclopedia
Benoît Labonté was a city councillor
Montreal City Council
The Montreal City Council is the governing body of Montreal, Quebec. The head of the city government in Montreal is the mayor, who is first among equals in the City Council. The mayor is Gérald Tremblay, who is a member of the Union des citoyens et des citoyennes de l'Île de Montréal...

 with the Vision Montréal
Vision Montreal
Vision Montreal is a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It has been in existence since 1994 and presently forms the Official opposition on Montreal City Council under leader Louise Harel.-Origins:...

 party in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He was the mayor of the borough of Ville-Marie
Ville-Marie (borough)
Ville-Marie is the name of a borough in the centre of the city of Montreal, Quebec.-Location:The borough comprises all of downtown Montreal, Old Montreal and the Old Port, the Centre-Sud area, most of Mount Royal Park, Saint Helen's Island, and Île Notre-Dame.It is bordered by the city of...

 until 2009. He was in favour of the merger of all Montreal Island municipalities into the megacity.http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/fp/Harel+plans+reopen+megacity+worms/1665853/story.html

Labonté, a former head of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal is an association of businesses and businessmen in Greater Montreal. In its own words it serves as "the voice of the business community and of the people of Greater Montreal for all aspects of their economic growth and prosperity"....

, is a Canadian federalist
Quebec federalist ideology
Quebec federalist ideology revolves around the concept of Quebec remaining within Canada, in opposition to the desires of Quebec sovereigntists and proponents of Quebec independence....

,. He once worked as an aide to former finance minister
Minister of Finance (Canada)
The Minister of Finance is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible each year for presenting the federal government's budget...

 Paul Martin
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

 of the Liberal Party of Canada
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

.

Previously a member of the Union Montreal
Union Montreal
Union Montreal is a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It currently governs Montreal's city government.-Origins:It was established as the Montreal Island Citizens Union in the aftermath of the province-wide municipal merger of 2001 and not long before the municipal election...

 municipal party, he left and joined Vision Montréal following a dispute with Montreal mayor Gérald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay
Gérald Tremblay is a Canadian politician and businessman currently serving his third term as mayor of Montreal and as president of the Montreal Metropolitan Community...

. Following this, Tremblay prevailed upon the Quebec government to abolish the position of Ville-Marie borough mayor as a separate elected position, merging it with the office of mayor of Montreal.

Labonté remained leader of Montreal's opposition party, Vision Montreal
Vision Montreal
Vision Montreal is a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It has been in existence since 1994 and presently forms the Official opposition on Montreal City Council under leader Louise Harel.-Origins:...

, until the municipal election of November 2009, when he resigned in favour of Louise Harel
Louise Harel
Louise Harel is a Québec politician. In 2005 she served as interim leader of the Parti Québécois following the resignation of Bernard Landry. She was also interim leader of the opposition in the National Assembly of Quebec. She represented the riding of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in the Montreal region...

 for mayor, running instead for city council in the district of Sainte-Marie. On Saturday October 17, 2009 he resigned as head of the official opposition after published reports of him taking bags of money from a Montreal developer http://ruefrontenac.com/nouvelles-generales/politiquemunicipale/12292-fabrice-follow-labonte-accurz.

Labonté subsequently dropped out of the election, and the seat was won by Pierre Mainville
Pierre Mainville
Pierre Mainville is a politician in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He has served on the Montreal city council since 2009, representing Sainte-Marie in the downtown Ville-Marie borough as a member of Projet Montréal.-Private career:...

 of Projet Montréal
Projet Montréal
Projet Montréal is a municipal political party in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-Origins:Projet Montréal is possibly the first party since the Montreal Citizens' Movement that was not specifically established to promote a mayoral candidacy. It was created by environmental activists in May...

.

External links

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