He served on the Montreal city council from 1978 to 1986, representing the Parc-Extension ward as a member of mayor Jean Drapeau's Civic Party of Montreal.
After retiring from his police career in 1998, he campaigned to become the Mayor of Montreal with his party Nouveau Montreal, finishing second with 26% of the vote, behind incumbent Pierre Bourque (44%) but ahead of former Mayor Jean Doré (10%).
In 1832 when Montreal was incorporated as a city the role of the Mayor of Montreal replaced the Quarter Sessions Chairman and the Court by Montreal City Council.
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Denis Coderre was elected as mayor of Montreal in this election, and his party won a plurality of seats on council.
In January 1997, Mayor Pierre Bourque tried to dismiss two members of Montreal's Executive Committee: Deputy Chairman Sammy Forcillo and Pierre Goyer.
In 1989, after having collected over 250,000 specimens, he solicited the then mayor of Montreal, Jean Doré, to open an insectarium.
In 2013, he was hired to defend Michael Applebaum, the former mayor of Montreal, on corruption charges.
During the Second World War, the largest internment camp in eastern Canada was located in the hamlet of Ripples, 10 km west of the village; in addition to German POWs, its most notable prisoner was the anti-conscriptionist mayor of Montreal, Camillien Houde.
The mayor of Montreal, Raymond Préfontaine, strongly encouraged its construction in an area central to the French Canadian élites, in contrast to the rival Windsor Hotel to the west, which was perceived to cater to the city's anglophone classes.
Adhémar Raynault (1891-1984), a Canadian politician and a Mayor of Montreal
The most famous prisoner was Camillien Houde, mayor of Montreal at the time, who was interned for encouraging resistance to military conscription.
The national qualities and purposes of the various bodies were commented upon by the Honourable Peter McGill, the first English-speaking Mayor of Montreal, at a dinner given by St. Patrick’s Society on the evening of March 17, 1836.