Boy wonder

>> Nicolas Tétrault’s electoral upset victory
gears rookie politico for life in the limelight

by CRAIG SEGALVENOR

Nicolas Tétrault surprised everyone when he stole André Cardinal’s Plateau city council seat in November’s municipal election—everyone except himself. Cardinal, a founder of the Montreal Citizens’ Movement, had held the seat for two decades. No way were Plateau hepcats going to vote for a 26-year-old Bourque councillor, especially one who was a two-time loser: in 1994 Tétrault lost on the PQ ticket in the provincial riding of Robert Baldwin, and he lost last year on the Bloc Québécois ticket in the federal riding of Brossard–La Prairie. But in November he did win, and solidly at that.
Now he’s also fighting for the position of Plateau council president, though the odds are against him: in the ex-City of Montreal, elected councillors must choose council presidents from amongst themselves (in the suburbs, the coveted spot goes to the politico with the most votes). And in the Plateau, where two councillors are Bourque and two are Tremblay, both sides want the job. Tremblay has the final say, however, and he has already said he favours his own. “I don’t think it’s very democratic for them to keep it for themselves,” says Tétrault in a Mont-Royal greasy spoon where the waitress knows him by name. “Clearly the Plateau has voted for us.” He’s got a point: with 5,248 votes, he got almost as many votes as his two Tremblay opponents combined.
The ambitious young man has been climbing all the right ladders since he was a tot. He just finished a stint as head of commercial performance management for the sales and marketing division of Radio-Canada. He was also an economic development consultant in France, a human resources consultant with Bombardier in Ontario, and volunteered at a summer camp for kids with cancer. “I’ve worked with young kids with leukemia,” he says. “I have no right to give up.” :