Patsy of the hour

>> Thérèse Daviau hopes to become Montreal's listening mayor

by PHILIP PREVILLE

City Councillor Michel Prescott was not at all surprised when he lost his bid to become the mayoral candidate for the Montreal Citizens Movement (MCM) this past weekend. But he was surprised that Thérèse Daviau managed to win it. A strange thing to say, considering that Daviau was his only opponent.

Daviau defeated Prescott fair and square at the municipal party's convention last weekend, 141 votes to 78. But Prescott was talking about something else, about the bizarre path that led his party to this moment of decision: "One year ago, I would have thought Jean Doré or Lisa Frulla would be our candidate. I never expected this."

Prescott believed both he and Daviau would end up taking a back seat to someone else; it was fair to ask whether either of them was really mayor material. Now that Daviau has been crowned queen of the MCM's b-pool, she's the only one who faces that question.

She spent much of the weekend ducking it artfully. During a debate with Prescott on Friday, Daviau took few stands on any issues. And rather than give a speech on Sunday, Daviau used her half hour to answer questions from the audience--an image-management trick designed to demonstrate Daviau's qualities as a "listener." The problem was that no one had been told beforehand, so no one had any questions at the ready. Daviau spent half an hour fielding gently lobbed questions from her own supporters, and answering them with pat clichés.

"I don't think Thérèse has the leadership capabilities necessary to do the job," comments Mile End Councillor Helen Fotopoulos, who quit the MCM last December following the vote on the city budget. While there is clearly no love lost between the two former colleagues, Fotopoulos, a union negotiator by profession, believes Daviau is unable to defend Montreal's interests. "We need chutzpah here, and we don't have it in Thérèse."

Daviau's actions as council's opposition leader during last November's budget vote seems to have stuck in more than one person's craw. The provincial government had interfered heavily in the preparation of Mayor Pierre Bourque's budget; with Bourque in a minority position on council, the opposition had enough votes to defeat it.

By all accounts, Daviau balked. "She was being pressured by Quebec not to reject the budget," recalls Fotopoulos. "Quebec was saying Montreal's bills wouldn't get paid, and she didn't want us to look like the bad guys." Daviau wanted the MCM to abstain--don't vote for it, but don't vote against it either. But from where Fotopoulos stood, the MCM held all the cards: if the province wanted the budget passed, concessions would have to be made.

Prescott agrees: "The province would never have let Montreal miss any payments. In a worst-case scenario, they would have passed a special law in the National Assembly to overrule the decision of city council and force the budget upon us." Prescott wouldn't have minded if Quebec ran roughshod over council's decision: it would have exposed the province's bullying tactics, and shown that the MCM was acting on principle.

Ultimately, a number of independent councillors voted with Bourque. The MCM then voted against the budget, secure in the knowledge that it would pass.

"That was a very difficult time for the MCM," Daviau told the Mirror. "That was when [former MCM party president] Michel Lemay and company bolted from the party. I had been working with a team of experts who suddenly deserted the MCM. I lost my communications director.

"Still, we made our point with the Quebec government, and they got the message."

Fotopoulos figures they got the message that Daviau is a pushover. "You've got to be tough when you bargain. You don't show up for negotiations and put your bottom-line position or your compromise position on the table right away. You have to defend your interests."

Other people continue to wonder whether Daviau even plans to become mayor. Sources confirm she has met with outgoing Police Chief Jacques Duchesneau about a possible municipal alliance--though her team continues to deny it, saying they let the rumour fly in order to raise Daviau's profile in the media.