Municipal political parties and politicization: the case of the 2013 Gatineau elections.

Chiasson, Guy ; Gauthier, Mario ; Andrew, Caroline 等

Abstract

This article examines the link between politicization and municipal political parties, using the case of the City of Gatineau. The 2013 municipal election was a novel event for Gatineau due to the arrival of a municipal political party, Action Gatineau. Using a broad definition of politicization, our objective is to study the degree to which this party and Projet Gatineau, the citizen movement that preceded the party, politicized local issues. More specifically, we will analyse four land use planning projects and the election campaign to demonstrate the efforts made towards increasing public participation as a municipal practice.

Keywords: elections, municipalities, politicization, political parties, land use planning, land use management, urban planning, urban development, Gatineau

Resume

Cet article interroge le lien entre politisation et partis politiques municipaux en prenant le cas de la Ville de Gatineau. L'election municipale de 2013 est marquee par une nouveaute a Gatineau, l'entree en scene d'un parti politique municipal, Action Gatineau. En faisant appel a une definition large de la politisation, nous cherchons a voir dans quelle mesure ce parti et Projet Gatineau, le mouvement citoyen qui l'a precede, ont contribue a politiser les enjeux locaux. Plus precisement, nous nous penchons sur quatre projets d'amenagement du territoire et sur la campagne electorale pour montrer les efforts faits pour augmenter la place de la parole publique dans la pratique municipale.

Mots cles: elections, municipalites, politisation, partis politiques, amenagement, urbanisme, Gatineau

MUNICIPAL POLITICAL PARTIES AND POLITICIZATION: THE CASE OF GATINEAU

This document refers to the 2013 Gatineau municipal elections, which brought to power Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, the leader of the new municipal political party, Action Gatineau. Via this case study, we will examine the links between municipal political parties and municipal politicization. The 2013 electoral event was indeed particular, being the first to include a municipal political party in due form in this city. Using this election and the preceding period (2009-2013), we will analyse the degree to which the emergence of Action Gatineau politicized municipal issues. In this article, we consider politicization to be the establishment of opportunities for citizens as well as elected officials to debate urban issues, including not only traditional municipal issues related to property services, but also issues in other areas, including those related to land use planning, urban development, quality of life, and social justice (Graham, Philips, and Maslove 1998; Lagroye 2003).

The question we pose, namely that of how municipal political parties contribute to the politicization of land use and urban development issues, has already been raised explicitly or more implicitly by several analysts. Sancton (2011, 176) mentions that local issues are generally considered not important enough to remain politicized:

   An important student of American urban politics,
   Paul Peterson, has suggested that political parties
   that exist solely at the municipal level cannot be
   sustained because the issues are not sufficiently
   important. In national political parties [sic] are
   formed and sustained around major political issues
   such as war and peace, free trade, and social class.
   The media pay close attention to what the parties
   do and individual voters form relatively long-lasting
   party attachments of varying degrees of intensity.
   Such factors generally do not exist at the municipal
   level.

According to this view, municipal political parties, because they are not an integral part of large national political parties, could not be long-lasting because they cannot mobilize issues and important political identities. Municipal political parties are thus viewed as short-lived and politically weak organizations.

In Canada, contrary to the United States or many other countries, the large federal and provincial political parties have failed to establish themselves on the municipal level. As recorded by several analysts (Graham, Philips, and Maslove 1998; Tindal et al. 2013), the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party (or its predecessor the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation-CCF) attempted in vain to establish themselves as municipal political parties in Toronto and Vancouver. Currently, Canada's large federal or provincial political parties, when they get involved in municipal politics, maintain an indirect role, for example mobilizing their electoral machine to support a specific candidate, but without officially establishing a political affiliation.

In most Canadian provinces, the lack of large federal or provincial parties hindered the emergence of local political parties, and thus the prevailing model is that of the independent elected official. As per Quesnel and Belley (1991, 17), the model existing in most Canadian cities is one of a "non-partisan city, where local elected officials are not backed by any political organization, whether strictly local or affiliated with a national party."' For Collin and Leveillee (2003, 34), the non-partisan model is one in which "municipal issues are considered primarily administrative, rather than as challenges that need to be addressed by using a hierarchical and explicit set of values."

This view of municipal politics associates the lack of municipal political parties with a mainly administrative or technical view of issues. However, although there is a lack of political parties at the local level practically all across Canada, there are two noteworthy exceptions: Quebec and British Columbia. Only these two provinces address the creation of local political parties in their municipal legislation (Sancton 2011: 178). Moreover, municipal political parties have been part of the political scene in the cities of Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec for several decades, which raises the question of the effect they have on politicizing local issues.

Most studies focusing on Quebec, with the exception of that by Mevellec and Tremblay (2013), deal with the case of political parties in the cities of Montreal and Quebec. We therefore know very little about municipal political parties in other cities in Quebec, even though they do in fact exist and have actually been growing in number for a decade (Mevellec 2011). Does the smaller size of these cities and the more recent arrival of political parties make politicization even more important and probable there? Can we find indications there of the new political parties influencing the politicization of the municipal scene?

The objective of our study is to provide some answers to these questions using the case of the City of Gatineau. It is important to state that demographically, Gatineau, with a population of just over 265,000, is the fourth largest city in Quebec, after Montreal, Quebec and Laval. Gatineau has the added benefit of being part of the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area, the fourth largest in Canada (2). The 2013 elections were noteworthy as it was the first time in local history that a municipal political party, Action Gatineau, ran for office. However, and thus our main hypothesis, even if the 2013 elections are an opportune time to evaluate the effects of politicization, we can also state that such politicization is part of a longer process that starts well before the election campaign. In this case, we will trace the beginning of the politicization process back to the 2009 municipal elections, when three candidates affiliated with the citizen movement Projet Gatineau (3) were elected to the municipal council. Noteworthy in this time period were four controversial debates on large urban planning projects--debates which we believe are particularly representative of politicization. We will then analyse the 2013 election campaign and elections to establish Action Gatineau's role, and the degree to which there was indeed "politicization."

Methodologically, the results presented in this article are based on three complementary forms of data collection: a press review covering the period between the last two municipal elections (from November 2009 to November 2013) (4); an analysis of documents created by the municipal political party Action Gatineau and the independent candidates in preparation for the election; and lastly, direct observation of Projet Gatineau public events, Action Gatineau, as well as several events concerning land use management and urban development issues during the period from 2009 to 2013. This information was reviewed within the analytical framework presented in the next section.

POLITICIZATION IN THE QUEBEC MUNICIPAL WORLD

Although issues are typically of a non-political character in the Canadian municipal world, it is quite rare for authors to explicitly state the nature of such an apolitical attitude. In a recent article, Bherer and Breux (2012) associate politicization with the presence of a left-right division, which they find to be visibly lacking in the Quebec municipal public arena. Such a division may be one of the possible and major forms of politicization, but we believe that a left-right split is not the sole form. The meaning of the concept of politicization that we propose here is closer to that maintained by Graham, Philips, and Maslove (1998, 93), who criticize the view that Canadian city governments are simply providers of property services. For these authors, besides development issues ("pro-anti development spectrum"), municipal politics also concerns quality of life and social justice issues: "the view that cities are technocratic providers of services is a myopic view of the nature of urban life. In fact, the politics of everyday fife can be the most important arena in which debates about social justice and quality of life are played out" (Graham, Philips, and Maslove 1998, 93). Following the example of these authors, we consider politicization to be the act of allowing and encouraging debates by citizens and elected officials on urban issues, which include not only issues related to property services, but also issues in other areas, including those related to land use planning and urban development.

Jacques Lagroye (2003, 360-361) specifies that politicization is "a requalification of the most diverse social events, a requalification which is the result of a practical agreement among the social agents inclined for various reasons to infringe on or question the differentiation of the areas of activity." In other words, this would be a means of introducing a political rationale (or political debates) into social spaces or sectors where such a way of thinking is lacking. The concepts of infringement or requalification refer to this. We should also clarify that the infringement can be by different types of actors. For some (Bherer and Breux 2012; Quesnel and Belley 1991), politicization (or the lack thereof) occurs at the level of political actors, including municipal political parties, while for others (see especially Wolff 1994), it is started rather by actors in civil society and urban movements. In our case, we are looking for such an infringement or requalification in the area of urban planning in Gatineau, while also determining if the emergence of a local political party contributed to politicization.

Politicization, as we borrowed the term from Lagroye (2003), also implies that it takes place and is visible not only during election campaigns, which can be the opportune time for political actors to put urban issues up for debate, but also between election periods, in what Graham, Philips, and Maslove refer to as the "politics of everyday life," which is evident whenever actors in civil society are called on to participate in municipal affairs.

In the case of Quebec, there is a consensus regarding the role of municipal political parties in the politicization of the local scene. The study by Quesnel and Belley (1991) on Quebec City as well as that by Leveillee and Leonard (1987) on Montreal focus on a key moment in local political history, namely when a new leftist municipal political party came to power--the Rassemblement populaire de Quebec (RPQ) and the Montreal Citizens' Movement (MCM). In Quebec, as in Montreal, the victory of these parties marked an end to the reign of older municipal political parties that intended to be the advocate for modern values in the Quiet Revolution and municipal partisan alternation. For Wolff (1994, 134), the increase in urban movements and the birth of local political parties are an indication of a "repoliticization of the local scene."

More recently, Bherer and Breux (2012, 172) questioned the capability of Quebec municipal political parties to effectively establish themselves completely as political parties, given that they are rather ephemeral political teams:

   What we call "political parties" are usually ephemeral
   political teams more so than well-organized partisan
   structures. In this sense, they are generally short-lived
   political groups, very often created prior to an
   election, that disappear the day after the polls close.

According to them, "from an ideological point of view, it is difficult to distinguish political parties in contention, mostly due to the absence of at least an official affiliation with provincial and federal political parties" (Bherer and Breux 2012, 172-173). For these authors, the lack of a connection between local and national political parties makes politicization unlikely.

Further perspective is added to this point of view by a recent article on municipal political parties in Quebec (Mevellec and Tremblay 2013), in which the authors examine the hypothesis that the proliferation of municipal political parties in Quebec contributes to a certain Westminsterization of municipal politics. This concept refers to the introduction into municipal politics of Westminster-like practices with the predominant theme of "government/ opposition division. "From this perspective, the presence of local political parties would at least to some degree eliminate some of the differences between the municipal and national political arenas. On the subject of Westminsterization, Mevellec and Tremblay (2013) take Quebec municipal political parties seriously. Instead of considering these parties ephemeral organizations, the authors hypothesize that these parties can play an important political role, even comparable to that of large federal or provincial parties, both in their conquest for and exercise of power. Does the emergence of municipal political parties contribute to politicization and therefore debates? We intend to present some answers to this question in the next sections.

FROM PROJET GATINEAU TO ACTION GATINEAU:THE BACKGROUND OF THE POLITICAL PARTY

The municipal political party Action Gatineau was officially founded in June 2012, building on the citizen movement Projet Gatineau, launched four years earlier. The citizen movement Projet Gatineau started with two supporters, Patrick Duguay (5) and Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin (6), with the stated objective of encouraging public participation in municipal affairs (7). Although Projet Gatineau is not a political party, the movement was able to garner the support of five candidates during the 2009 elections. Three of them-Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, Stefan Psenak and Mireille Appolon-were elected as city councillors in that election and would become in a way a parliamentary wing which could possibly support the creation of a party. It was in March 2012, a year and a half prior to the elections, that there was concrete talk of establishing a political party, and the mechanics started to be put in place. Tensions between the duo Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin/Stefan Psenak (8) and mayor Bureau increased in fall 2011, with the controversial scheduling at Pedneaud-Jobin's initiative of a retreat supposedly for the entire municipal council; but where only half of the councillors participated, and the mayor was absent. The nine participants reemerged with proposals to improve the internal workings of the city council, but Pedneaud-Jobin admits that "very informal" discussions took place at the retreat regarding the pertinence of a political party in Gatineau. The two initiators of the citizen movement Projet Gatineau, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin and Patrick Duguay, became, respectively, leader and president of Action Gatineau, which confirms the important connection between the movement and the party. In March 2013, Action Gatineau held a conference that culminated in the adoption of the party platform of seven themes, the first of which, "Democracy and governance" focuses on "opening debates to the public," taking "measures to bring residents to take back possession of their city," and the importance of municipal councillors taking on "a political function and not simply the role of an administrator" (Action Gatineau 2013, 3). This program resulted in the electoral platform of the municipal political party, outlined in a document entitled "For a true municipal government" which advocates Gatineau's need for a united "team with strong leadership skills and a clear vision." ** This platform is expressed as six objectives (Table 1) aiming to give Gatineau a stronger voice, ensure improved municipal management, strengthen local communities and revitalize the city's economy.

The fact that the municipal council included councillors closely associated with Projet Gatineau, especially Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin and Stefan Psenak, gave the citizen movement a key platform to promote certain priorities identified in its manifesto and challenge certain projects on this basis. In a previous article (Chiasson, Gauthier, and Andrew 2011), we had interpreted the emergence of the citizen movement Projet Gatineau as the indication of a desire to change the culture of municipal politics in Gatineau. In the next part, we intend to examine the degree to which the team of councillors associated with the citizen movement Projet Gatineau, and then the municipal political party Action Gatineau, contributed to this politicization.

THE POLITICIZATION OF LAND USE AND URBAN PLANNING ISSUES IN GATINEAU

The municipal merger in the early 2000s and the creation of a new City of Gatineau were opportune for the municipal government to initiate a plan to renew its governance process (Andrew and Chiasson 2006), to give "participatory governance" a larger role. As we demonstrated in a previous paper (Chiasson, Gauthier, and Andrew 2011), the 2005 election of mayor Marc Bureau (10) in a way was the return to an approach closer to the traditional model of decision making that dominated municipal politics in Canada for a long time. This model gives little say to actors in civil society in decision making and aims to avoid political debates on municipal issues. Following his reappointment as mayor in November 2009, mayor Bureau fairly quickly faced opposition from several city councillors, including the two aforesaid councillors who were elected based on a joint platform and acted as the spokesmen of the citizen movement Projet Gatineau. During this period, councillor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin was particularly active in the local media, taking a pedagogical role to explain the major municipal issues in detail.

The split within the council was especially visible in several matters concerning land use management and urban planning, leading to lengthy and at times quite acrimonious debates. In the following paragraphs, we will present four major projects which not only divided, but also politicized, the municipal council during the period 2009-2013, a time when the spokesmen for Projet Gatineau (2009-2012) and then Action Gatineau (2012-2013) were especially active.

Downtown development

Following an in-depth planning and consultation exercise, in September 2009 the City of Gatineau developed a challenging Special Planning Program to revitalize the downtown area. After their re-election in November 2009, mayor Marc Bureau and the councillor for the Hull-Val-Tetreau sector, Denise Laferriere, prioritized the downtown revitalization project. This project would be the focus of two important debates, mainly due to the initiative of the councillor for the district of Buckingham, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin.

The first debate dealt with a plan in which all property tax generated by the construction of new buildings in the sector would be reinvested in the downtown revitalization project. Mayor Bureau based this plan mostly on the federal government's promise to build two new office buildings downtown. Councillor Pedneaud-Jobin proposed to extend the downtown investment plan to include the property tax revenue from all new buildings constructed in Gatineau, regardless of the sector. By proposing this alternative plan, the councillor intended to advocate that the Special Planning Program was a priority for the City of Gatineau, and that all monies generated in the entire city should be used to finance it. At the close of the debate, mayor Bureau's initial proposal was in fact carried unanimously by the municipal council.

The second important debate regarding the downtown revitalization project dealt with the urban re-development of Montcalm Street in the Ruisseau de la Brasserie sector. An "open house" consultation was held for this first major project in the Special Planning Program, where participants expressed their strong opposition due to the fact that the plan lacked a bicycle path and continued to allow truck traffic on Montcalm Street. Given the dissatisfaction of the residents, city officials attempted to limit allotted speaking times and postpone discussions. Councillor Pedneaud-Jobin made several media appearances on this matter to deplore the poor quality of the public consultations, stating that they gave the citizens the impression that the outcome had already been decided and that several elected officials took the project for granted. This questioning of the quality of participatory initiatives in Gatineau actually prompted the City's Office of the Ombudsman to create a task force on the subject, whose recently submitted report criticized the City's public consultation procedures (Ville de Gatineau 2014).

Connaught eco-neighbourhood

Shortly after the 2009 elections, a major developer in the region announced its plan for an "urban village" type residential project on the site of the former Aylmer racetrack, Connaught Park. The project required a change to zoning by-laws as about 40% of the total lot area was zoned as recreational. During an evening reflection session on the future of Connaught Park organized by the City, residents in the sector indicated they wished to maintain the recreational vocation of the Park and expressed their concerns about the project. Mayor Bureau first announced his intention to respect the residents' wishes to maintain the recreational zone and cancelled the second evening consultation session scheduled on the matter, but in January 2012 the City submitted an alternative eco-neighbourhood project that would supposedly maintain the recreational vocation of the site and meet the residents' needs. The new version of the project, which included the construction of 800 dwellings and the use of a portion of the recreational zone to build a school and a community centre, was heavily criticized at the public consultation held on the matter, attended by 200 residents. In February 2012, the municipal council carried the project despite the opposition of several resident associations, who believed it was a missed opportunity to create a unique recreotourism project. The members of Action Gatineau in the council voted against the project, claiming that it should be part of a global vision to develop the Aylmer sector, a vision which was still lacking but was just being formed in the revised land use and development plan. Councillor Pedneaud-Jobin also drew on the expertise of the organization Vivre en Ville, for whom this project did not really fit the definition of an eco-neighbourhood, to justify Action Gatineau's opposition to the project.

Destination Gatineau

After his re-election in 2009, Marc Bureau made it clear that in his new term he would prioritize the Destination Gatineau project, which he unveiled during the election campaign, to make Gatineau an international tourist destination. This project, the initial objective of which is to develop the banks of the Ottawa River to attract tourists from the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area to Gatineau, has yet to be defined but has attracted the interest of the National Capital Commission (NCC) as part of the commemorations for Canada's 150th birthday.

In early 2012, Destination Gatineau was slated to be completed in 2017 for Canada's 150th birthday, with the majority of the development at Jacques-Cartier Park, located on the banks of the Ottawa River almost facing Parliament Hill. During the consultations organized for business people and members of the community, certain residents and organizations, such as Vision centre-ville, an organization representing downtown merchants, criticized the project for its lack of attention to the residents and inconsistency with the guidelines established in the downtown Special Planning Program. In fall 2012, Action Gatineau presented an alternative project named "Destination tout Gatineau," with the objective of completing the projects already planned by the council in all sectors of the City and that would "benefit first and foremost the local communities," a proposal considered unfocused and inconsistent by a source close to mayor Bureau. At the end of the year, Destination Gatineau scheduled public consultations, namely three discussion tables, for a group of about thirty preselected individuals considered "key figures" in business, tourism, culture and the community. At the same time, consultations for a wider audience were scheduled for 2013. Action Gatineau criticized this practice, terming it the "Bureau method," where discussions take place only with those who support the project.

In February 2013, the public was engaged in the Destination Gatineau project via a discussion group that was preceded by a tour to the shopping centres. Residents were also able to provide their feedback online. The mayor confirmed that the project was not yet finalized at that point and that there was room for enhancements, but also pushed for immediate action in order not to miss the "window of opportunity" of funding allocated for Canada's 150th birthday. Most of the 80 residents who participated in the consultation were concerned about the voice of local residents in this tourism project, and several individuals considered the event a marketing ploy. The issues raised by the citizens echo those of a downtown property developer and the Association des Residents de file de Hull (ARIH), who were concerned that Destination Gatineau would take priority over the downtown revitalization project, and that focusing all of the development on the shoreline would have little effect on improving the downtown area. Following the example of the ARIH, which advocated giving immediate priority to the Ruisseau de la Brasserie sector, Action Gatineau restated its opposition to the project. Specifically, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin and Stefan Psenak were still opposed to mayor Bureau's project, and felt that the downtown revitalization project should prioritize the Ruisseau de la Brasserie and the Montcalm sector.

Land use and development plan

Since the beginning of mayor Bureau's second term in November 2009, the Planning Advisory Committee chaired by councillor Patsy Bouthillette had the important mandate of updating the City's land use and development plan. The revision process began in 2011 under the auspices of Land Use Planning Services, which convinced the municipal council to involve the public throughout the exercise.

We highlight that this process was significantly smoother than the other debates mentioned previously, notably due to the fact that citizen engagement was planned from the outset of the project via several events, and that there was a general consensus on the quality of such events. For the Projet Gatineau movement, and then Action Gatineau, this exercise was of major importance as it finally afforded the City a global vision for development. Along these lines, Projet Gatineau organized two discussion forums on urban planning in spring 2012 parallel to the official public consultation process, and the Action Gatineau party held a forum on the revision of the land use and development plan in the fall of the same year, with the purpose of soliciting feedback from its members and interested citizens in order to develop the party platform. These two initiatives are based on the understanding and open discussion of the issues, and are in keeping with the democratic renewal sought by Action Gatineau, a renewal that "requires citizen participation in public debates" (Action Gatineau 2013, 3). ***

Apart from the public discussions, Action Gatineau was very active throughout the process and in April 2013 submitted to the municipal council a list of 26 amendments to the updated land use and development plan. Many of these proposals echoed the concerns and wishes expressed by several groups during the public consultation process, and included creating a mixed-actor committee to monitor and implement the land use plan, establishing a process for formal partnerships with neighbouring RCMs to prepare a joint land use plan, and adopting a development strategy at the city level rather than by sector or field of business.

The four projects we have presented showcase how Action Gatineau's parliamentary wing intended to be the opposition to the municipal government headed by mayor Bureau. As we have seen, this opposition manifested itself not only via development projects, for example questioning the consistency of global city development and criticizing urban sprawl, but also via the decision-making process. In fact, the Projet Gatineau or Action Gatineau councillors consistently positioned themselves as critics of the public consultation methods for these four projects. Of course, given their minority status in the municipal council, the councillors affiliated with the political party did not often get their amendments carried and they would sometimes join the majority position. However, by criticizing land use planning methods, they helped requalify development issues in the political arena, while also helping to give the public a voice in these matters. As we will see in the next section, this politicization process also continued in the fall 2013 election campaign.

THE 2013 CAMPAIGN AND ELECTIONS: MUNICIPAL POLITICAL PARTIES AT THE CRUX OF THE DEBATE

Municipal political parties took on a major role in the 2013 Gatineau campaign, not only with the Action Gatineau party as a political force in the electoral race, but also because many of the campaign debates focused explicitly on the legitimacy of political parties in Gatineau's municipal scene. However, in the last third of the campaign, the rather catastrophic launch of the Rapibus (12) project-an issue that is well-documented in land use planning records-would overshadow the question of political parties to some degree. Although the difficulties in implementing this reserved bus lane significantly contributed to the election of the Action Gatineau leader, our point here is rather the marked difference between mayor Bureau's campaign approach and that of the Action Gatineau candidate. Mayor Bureau's campaign was essentially based on his 2009 strategy, limiting his media appearances (one press briefing a week) and participating in only one leadership debate (that organized by CBC Ottawa Gatineau). Moreover, the outgoing mayor was criticized for this approach, notably by the Federation professionnelle des journalistes du Quebec, who considered it disdainful of the media and the citizens. On the other end of the spectrum, the Action Gatineau leader and mayoral candidate, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, maximized his public appearances, whether via traditional or social media. In fact, this difference in approach became a campaign selling point for the latter, who made a point of highlighting, on several occasions, Marc Bureau's absence at public events, considering it an unwillingness to publicly disclose information and debate.

Action Gatineau was created and took part in the election campaign at the same time when the Charbonneau Commission was underway (created in fall 2011), and more specifically when there were quite disturbing allegations of corruption and illegal financing in municipal political parties, notably in Montreal. This context helped support the stance of those against political parties in Gatineau, notably the outgoing mayor Marc Bureau and certain councillors in his immediate staff. Throughout this campaign, mayor Bureau attempted to make political parties a central issue, arguing that a model with independent municipal elected officials is clearly preferable to one with political parties, which promotes division and corruption. Moreover, he complained on several occasions that Quebec electoral legislation financially favours municipal political parties over independent candidates. As for the Action Gatineau candidates, they defended the need for a political party in Gatineau, hammering home that it was the only way to ensure a consistent and progressive vision for city development.

We interpret these debates on the pertinence of a municipal political party in Gatineau as part of a logical next step to politicize the municipal governance method. The election campaign was an opportunity to start an unprecedented debate in Gatineau not only on the pertinence of political parties, but also on the governance model based on the independent elected official in effect until then. Without a doubt, Action Gatineau's presence as a political force had a significant impact on the 2013 election campaign. The party put candidates forward in all eighteen districts in the municipality, so that there would be elections in all districts, which contrasts with the 2009 election when several councillors were elected by acclamation (Chiasson, Gauthier, and Andrew 2011). As shown in Table 2, the results of the November 2013 vote are quite mixed in terms of recognizing Action Gatineau as a major political force. Although on one hand Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin had a fairly decisive victory in the mayoral elections, the picture was not so clear for the councillors: Action Gatineau had to settle for four elected officials, and certain outgoing candidates (Andre Laframboise and Stefan Psenak) lost their seats. This partial victory for Action Gatineau indicates that although the leader, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, succeeded in becoming a charismatic figure for citizens, the partisan structure had more trouble gaining legitimacy in the eyes of the public, and there is still a lot of work to be done in this regard.

CONCLUSION

The main purpose of this paper was to document the emergence and work of municipal political parties in Gatineau and, more specifically, examine the degree to which these parties could be vehicles for politicization in a mid-sized city in Quebec. Our analysis of the case of Gatineau demonstrated a very strong connection between the political party Action Gatineau and the preceding movement Projet Gatineau. We believe this connection to be of importance for several reasons, starting with the fact that it confirms that politicization can occur outside of election periods, whenever the politics of everyday life are in play. The development projects that we reviewed are in fact some of the main events where there was a rationale towards confrontation with and opposition to the municipal council, led mostly by councillors Pedneaud-Jobin and Psenak. We could even mention here a certain Westminsterization, the continuation of which will be seen in the next election campaign.

We have found indications of politicization on two levels. First and foremost, it was evident at the level of the municipal governance model where the emergence of Action Gatineau, within an a priori anti-party context, led to debates on municipal political practices. Secondly, the connection we found between the citizen movement Projet Gatineau and the political party Action Gatineau also highlights the roles of the individuals involved. The recurrent theme is so clear that we may venture to say there was a political strategy in play by the leadership of the citizen movement which became a political party. It is as if creating the movement set the foundation for a militant base and support for a possible future political party. However, Action Gatineau's partial success in the 2013 elections seems to indicate that the public was more comfortable handing the reins of power over to Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin than to his political party. At the very least, these results will force the new mayor to convince other councillors to join his party, or at a minimum to support his vision, if he intends to carry out his political agenda.

Our paper sheds some light on the perspective that local political parties (those found in Canada) are necessarily depoliticized organizations. The case of the political party Action Gatineau suggests, to begin with, that a Westminsterization process may be taking place in Gatineau. Furthermore, our review of the development projects also suggests that the elected officials associated with the Projet Gatineau movement and then with the Action Gatineau political party may have promoted the legitimacy of public discussion, at least in the urban planning sector. Of course, given the recent nature of these events, it is difficult to surmise if and how this process will continue in the future, leaving the question open as to whether Action Gatineau can institute long-lasting politicization. However, we believe that the results of the 2013 Gatineau elections and the preceding debates invite a closer examination of the experience and workings of municipal political parties in medium-sized cities in Quebec and serious consideration of their potential for politicization.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank Caroline Desrochers and Lynda Gagnon for their contribution to data collection, as well as the invited editor and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the draft version of this article.

REFERENCES

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Guy Chiasson

Social Sciences Department

Universite du Quebec en Outaouais

Mario Gauthier

Social Sciences Department

Universite du Quebec en Outaouais

Caroline Andrew

Centre on Governance

Faculty of Social Sciences

University of Ottawa

Notes

* Unless otherwise noted, all translations are by an independent translator.]

(2) According to Statistics Canada, in 2011, "the population of Ottawa--Gatineau census metropolitan area (CMA) was 1,236,324, representing a percentage change of 9.1% from 2006." [Translation by Statistics Canada, web site, accessed September 23,2014.]

(3) Projet Gatineau is a citizen movement launched in fall 2008 by two main sponsors, Patrick Duguay and Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, with the purpose of triggering a debate on ideas about the future of Gatineau.

(4) We set this period in order to collect data not only on the 2013 elections and election campaign, but also on the context in which the municipal political party Action Gatineau emerged during the mandate of the previous municipal government (2009 to 2013). The press review revealed about 800 articles published in the local daily and weekly newspapers (mainly the daily paper Le Droit and the weekly papers Info07 and La Revue).

(5) Patrick Duguay is the director general of the Cooperative de developpement regional Outaouais-Laurentides (CDROL),the mission of which is to support regional development in these areas. Well-known in the Outaouais region, he helped found several co-operatives and sits on the boards of many companies and local and regional organizations.

(6) Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, before becoming mayor, was city councillor for one term (2009-2013). Before entering municipal politics, he was the assistant to the Executive Director for the Agence de la sante, a journalist, and also played a major role in the creation of the Laiterie de l'Outaouais, a very highly publicized project in the Outaouais region.

(7) Following a first public forum held on November 15,2008, several evening thematic work sessions took place in 2009, as well as a public meeting on September 19,2009, in which citizens were given the opportunity to establish five priorities for the next term of the municipal government. The topics covered at these citizen meetings included, among others, urban planning, sustainable development, social and cultural development, as well as democratic life and citizen engagement. Although during the 2009 election campaign Projet Gatineau often denied being an outline of a municipal political party, a coalition of five candidates from different districts (the "group of five") picked up on the ideas put forth in this movement. Three of the candidates, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin (Buckingham), Stefan Psenak (Aylmer) and Mireille Apollon (L'Oree-du-Parc), were elected in November 2009. For further details, see Chiasson, Gauthier, and Andrew (2011).

(8) Stefan Psenak is an editor, publicity writer and translator. A strong advocate for culture and heritage, he was elected councillor for the Aylmer district in the municipal elections of November 1,2009. During his term he chaired the Commission des arts, de la culture, des lettres et du patrimoine of the City of Gatineau.

** [All translations in this paragraph by Action Gatineau, web site, accessed September 23, 2014.]

(10) Businessman and president of the Association des gens d'affaires de Hull (1996 to 1998), Marc Bureau was first elected as city councillor (2002 to 2005), and then as mayor of Gatineau (2005 to 2013). He won the 2005 election against the outgoing mayor Yves Ducharme with more than 68% of the votes, while in 2009 he defeated four other mayoral candidates by winning 44% of the votes.

*** [Translation by Action Gatineau, web site, accessed September 23, 2014.]

(12) Rapibus is a bus corridor that was launched a few weeks before the municipal elections. For riders in several sectors served by this new corridor, rush hour commute times were significantly increased creating major frustration. Mayor Bureau attempted to downplay the problems caused to residents, thus giving Pedneaud-Jobin an opportunity for self-promotion.

**** [Translation heavily based on existing translation by Action Gatineau, web site, accessed September 23, 2014.]

Table 1--Action Gatineau's electoral platform

Give Gatineau a        * Fight for a rightful portion of Quebec and
stronger voice           Ottawa's contributions to our municipal
                         projects
                       * Develop partnerships with Regional County
                         Municipalities (RCM) and Ottawa regarding
                         transportation and land use planning issues
                       * Defend our region's needs with regards to
                         education, culture and health

Develop a "Gatineau"   * Bring municipal services closer to communities
identity through       * Build a city where local history and identity
dynamic local            are valued
communities            * Invest in our heritage and culture
                       * Financially support artists, sports activities
                         and community organizations

Modernize our          * Weekly meetings without appointment with the
municipal democratic     Mayor
tools                  * Independent Public Consultation Office
                       * Transparency: automatic access to municipal
                         documents and adherence to Gatineau: Open City
                       * Equal access to resources and information
                         given to all members of the Municipal Council

Improve municipal      * A plan to fight collusion, including an
management               analysis of all contracts and extras, a review
                         of administrative procedures and of the
                         splitting of contracts, etc.
                       * A fast-track review of expenses, efficiency of
                         services, pension plans, etc.
                       * Priority to be given to projects already
                         underway: Parc des Cedres, Ruisseau de la
                         Brasserie, the embankment of Jacques-Cartier
                         Street, the embankment of the Blanche river
                         and the Nautical Centre of la Lievre
                       * A plan to alleviate the fiscal burden of our
                         citizens by bringing in new revenue to the
                         City, for example, retaining a portion of the
                         Quebec sales tax

Give priority to the   * A plan to promote economic development: make
economy, education       current entrepreneurs' lives easier and
and health of our        encourage the emergence of new ones
citizens               * A prominent place for the University of Quebec
                         in Outaouaisz within our economic development
                         strategy
                       * Support to families: an agreement between the
                         City and school boards to increase the number
                         of activities at a lower cost
                       * More social diversity, affordable housing and
                         proper implementation of the City's
                         Elimination of Slums
                       * Infrastructure better adapted to an aging
                         population

Be a leader among      * Enable people to live, work, enjoy pastimes
green cities             and do their shopping all within their
                         neighbourhood
                       * Diversified access to public transportation:
                         a more efficient network with Ottawa, a
                         completed eastbound rapid transit system and
                         a westbound section to be developed
                       * An efficient and useful bicycle grid for both
                         work and recreation
                       * The enhancement of an urban open-air network,
                         including the completion of recreational paths
                         and better access to our urban forests and
                         rivers

Source: Action Gatineau, electoral leaflet. ****

Table 2--Results of the 2013 Gatineau municipal elections

Candidate                                             Votes       %

Mayor's Office
Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin Action Gatineau                40,994    52.61%
Marc Bureau (outgoing)                               28,165    36.15%
Jacques Lemay                                         7,492     9.62%
Francois P. D'Aoust                                   1,268     1.63%

District d'Aylmer (1)
Josee Lacasse                                         2,485    53.44%
Stefan Psenak (outgoing) Action Gatineau              2,165    46.56%

District de Lucerne (2)
Mike Duggan                                           1,647    38.69%
Andre Laframboise (outgoing) Action Gatineau          1,361    31.97%
Roch Givogue                                          1,115    26.19%
Claude Turpin                                          134      3.15%

District de Deschenes (3)
Richard M. Begin Action Gatineau                      2,399    54.25%
Alain Riel (outgoing)                                 2,023    45.75%

District du Plateau (4)
Maxime Tremblay (outgoing)                            2,435    57.46%
Francois Leveille Action Gatineau                     1,803    42.54%

District du Manoir-des-Trembles-Val-Tetreau (5)
Jocelyn Blondin                                       2,176    50.85%
Christian Meilleur Action Gatineau                    2,103    49.15%

District de l'Oree-du-Parc (6)
Mireille Apollon (outgoing) Action Gatineau           2,983    58.58%
Bruno Bonneville                                      2,109    41.42%

District de Parc-de-la-Montagne-Saint-Raymond (7)
Louise Boudrias                                       2,211    50.06%
Adrian Corbo Action Gatineau                          1,919    43.45%
Andre-Felix Comeau                                     287      6.50%

District de Hull-Wright (8)
Denise Laferriere (outgoing)                          1,696    58.89%
Isabelle N. Miron Action Gatineau                     1,052    36.53%
Debelle Michel                                         132      4.58%

District de Limbour (9)
Cedric Tessier                                        2,444    43.29%
Wassim Aboutanos Action Gatineau                      1,689    29.92%
Nicole Champagne (outgoing)                           1,512    26.78%

District de Touraine (10)
Denis Tasse (outgoing)                                2,533    61.02%
Alexandre Fortin-Bordeleau Action Gatineau            1,618    38.98%

District de Pointe-Gatineau (11)
Myriam Nadeau Action Gatineau                         1,577    43.98%
Andre Francois Choquette                               837     23.34%
Pierre Laurin                                          677     18.88%
Patrick Pilon                                          495     13.80%

District du Carrefour-de-l'Hopital (12)
Gilles Carpentier                                     2,898    67.65%

Nawel Benyelles Action Gatineau                       1,386    32.35%

District du Versant (13)
Daniel Champagne                                      2,607    57.35%
Genevieve Ouimet Action Gatineau                      1,939    42.65%

District de Bellevue (14)
Sylvie Goneau (outgoing)                              2,928    66.14%
Christian Violy Action Gatineau                       1,499    33.86%

District du Lac-Beauchamp (15)
Stephane Lauzon (outgoing)                            2,632    74.04%
Chakib Ahmimed Action Gatineau                         923     25.96%

District de la Riviere-Blanche (16)
Jean Lessard                                          1,296    29.20%
Eric Bourgeau                                         1,295    29.17%
Francine Parent-Stuart Action Gatineau                1,278    28.79%
Jason S. Noble                                         570     12.84%

District de Masson-Angers (17)
Marc Carriere                                         1,636    39.17%
Roland Jr. Frenette Action Gatineau                   1,326    31.75%
Luc Montreuil (outgoing)                              1,215    29.09%

District de Buckingham (18)
Martin Lajeunesse Action Gatineau                     3,249    73.11%
Yan Hebert                                            1,195    26.89%

Source: Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec.