Ivon Le Duc

Ivon Le Duc is a politician and entrepreneur in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He served on the Montreal city council from 1994 to 2005 and was a member of the Montreal executive committee (i.e., the municipal cabinet) in Pierre Bourque's administration from 1998 to 2001. Elected three times as a member of Bourque's Vision Montreal (VM) party, he later served with the Montreal Island Citizens Union (MICU) and as an independent.

Political career
Vision Montreal

Le Duc was first elected to council in the 1994 municipal election, defeating incumbent Scott McKay of the Montreal Citizens' Movement (MCM) in the east-end division of Honoré-Beaugrand. Vision Montreal won a majority of seats in this election under Bourque's leadership, and Le Duc initially served as a pro-administration backbencher. He was appointed to a committee of the Montreal Urban Community that explored possible police service mergers.[1]

During the Vision Montreal internal crisis of 1997, Le Duc was a vocal supporter of Bourque's leadership.[2] On February 5, 1997, he was promoted to an associate membership on the executive committee.[3]

Le Duc was re-elected in the 1998 municipal election, in which Bourque's administration won a second mandate. On November 12, 1998, he was named as a full member of the executive committee with responsibility for housing.[4] The following year, he led the executive committee in amending the city's urban planning by-laws to require a 7.5 metre gap between garages in new developments. This was a response to complaints from several Montreal communities where crowded garage construction had restricted parking and snow removal service.[5]

Vision Montreal was defeated by Gérald Tremblay's Montreal Island Citizens Union in the 2001 municipal election. Le Duc was easily re-elected in the redistributed division of Tétreaultville; after the election, he was selected as chair of the new Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough council and served as opposition housing critic on city council.[6] In 2002, he spoke against Mayor Tremblay's plan to construct a major boulevard on Notre Dame Street East.[7] He launched a probe later in the same year into alleged price fixing for Montreal's recycling contracts, charging that two firms controlled most recycling services across the city.[8]

In January 2003, fellow Vision Montreal councillor Richer Dompierre alleged that Le Duc attacked him during a heated borough council debate over the removal of a Jean-Paul Riopelle sculpture.[9] The chief crown prosecutor later confirmed there was enough evidence to charge Le Duc with simple assault, but ultimately Le Duc was able to avoid legal charges by attending a program that allowed for the non-judicial treatment of certain infractions.[10]

MICU and independent

Le Duc resigned from Vision Montreal in February 2003, saying that he felt "betrayed" by Pierre Bourque's decision to run for the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) party in the 2003 Quebec provincial election. He retained his position as borough council chair and initially sat as an independent.[11] On December 12, 2003, he joined Tremblay's MICU party.[12] All borough council chairs in Montreal were re-designated as "borough mayors" in 2004.

Le Duc was unexpectedly rejected as MICU's candidate for borough mayor in the 2005 municipal election in favour of former provincial cabinet minister Pierre Bélanger.[13] Le Duc subsequently resigned from MICU and again served as an independent, openly snubbing Tremblay at a major public event in his community.[14] He did not seek re-election in 2005.

Before leaving office, Le Duc charged that there was systematic corruption in Montreal's political culture. He identified a long-standing practice of political parties soliciting money from companies angling for municipal contracts, and said that seventy-five to eighty per cent of contributions to major parties came from entrepreneurs with municipal contracts or from their employees and families. He was also quoted as saying, "Every time someone pays a contribution of $500 or more ... someone receives something in exchange. [...] It's too well-entrenched."[15] As a remedy, he proposed banning anonymous donations to political parties.[16]

Entrepreneur

Le Duc purchased the real estate firm Demtec Inc. in August 2005. The following year, he was profiled in the Montreal Gazette for selling prefabricated houses to Afghanistan in co-operation with a construction firm based in Kabul. After visiting Afghanistan, Le Duc said that the Canadian private sector had almost no presence in the country and accused the Canadian government of failing to promote investment.[17]

He was again profiled by the Gazette in February 2007 for shipping prefabricated houses from Quebec to Alberta.[18]

Electoral record
2001 Montreal municipal election results: Councillor, Tétreaultville division
1998 Montreal municipal election results: Councillor, Honoré-Beaugrand division
1994 Montreal municipal election results: Councillor, Honoré-Beaugrand division
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References
  1. "Revisiting police merger" [editorial], Montreal Gazette, 18 March 1997, B2.
  2. Eric Siblin, "Pro-Bourque councillors rally behind mayor," Montreal Gazette, 5 February 1997, A3.
  3. "Bourque rewards loyal councillors with added duties, responsibilities," Montreal Gazette, 6 February 1997, F8.
  4. Aaron Derfel, "Mayor taps Fortier as chairman: Executive committee is experienced," Montreal Gazette, 13 November 1998, A3; Linda Gyulai, "No extra cash for housing workers on strike: Tenants of city's subsidized apartments, hit by a strike of workers for 18 weeks, urge binding arbitration to end the dispute," Monreal Gazette, 11 December 1998, A3.
  5. "Party backs off lawsuit," Montreal Gazette, 16 June 1999, A5.
  6. Linda Gyulai, "City recycling contracts on hold: Provincial government invokes special powers to let Montreal extend existing contracts till March, in hopes of reaching better deals," Montreal Gazette, 17 August 2002, A4.
  7. "'We don't want a wall': East-end residents oppose Notre Dame boulevard plan," Montreal Gazette, 4 June 2002, A6; Ann Carroll, "Shelter gets cooling system, cubicles: But displaced tenants in St. Henri school are 'penned like cattle,' opposition councillor says," Montreal Gazette, 5 July 2002, A3.
  8. "Montreal councillor to probe alleged price fixing in city recycling contracts," Canadian Press, 17 August 2002.
  9. Graeme Hamilton, "Riopelle sculpture sparks Montreal council dust-up: Moving La Joute," Montreal Gazette, National Post, 20 January 2003, A3.
  10. Linda Gyulai, "Veteran city councillor quits Vision Montreal," Montreal Gazette, 19 February 2003, A7.
  11. Linda Gyulai, "Veteran city councillor quits Vision Montreal," Montreal Gazette, 19 February 2003, A7.
  12. Sue Montgomery, "Tremblay gets six new councillors," Montreal Gazette, 13 December 2008, A8.
  13. Henry Aubin, "Backroom boys pick candidates for Tremblay," Montreal Gazette, 18 August 2005, A21.
  14. James Mennie, "Mayor feels borough pain in first week of campaign," Montreal Gazette, 1 October 2005, A9.
  15. Linda Gyulai, "Is City Hall for sale?", Montreal Gazette, 1 October 2005, p. 1.
  16. Linda Gyulai, "Raise Fines," Montreal Gazette, 3 October 2005, A1.
  17. Mike King, "Quebecer sells prefab houses to Afghanistan," Montreal Gazette, 21 March 2006, B1.
  18. Allan Swift, "Quebec homebuilders cash in on Alberta boom," Montreal Gazette, 5 February 2007, B1.
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