Laurent Blanchard

Laurent Blanchard (born November 25, 1952) is a politician in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He represented the east-end Hochelaga ward on Montreal city council from 2005 to 2013, initially as a member of Vision Montreal and later as an independent. On June 25, 2013, he was elected by council as interim Mayor of Montreal, a position he served in until the election of Denis Coderre on November 3, 2013. Early life and career Blanchard was born in Montreal's Mercier district and worked in the publishing sector before entering political life. He was for many years the owner and publisher of Les Nouvelles de l'Est and also became assistant to the president of Hebdos Télémédia in the late 1980s. Blanchard was a political attaché in mayor Jean Doré's administration from 1991 to 1994, working in internal affairs, and was director-general of the Corporation de développement de l’Est (CDEST) from 1995 to 2002. City councillor Blanchard was first elected to city council in the 2005 municipal election, defeating incumbent councillor Luc Larivée from mayor Gérald Tremblay's Montreal Island Citizens Union (MICU). Tremblay's party won a majority on council, and Blanchard served as a member of the official opposition. In 2006, Blanchard urged the Montreal Executive Committee to rescind a policy it had approved in camera the previous month, restricting Montreal civil servants from disclosing information deemed to be "confidential," "reserved," "for internal use" or "personal." Blanchard noted that this policy had never been presented to the full council. In the same period, he joined with fellow councillor Gaëtan Primeau in a "bathrobe protest," showing up to a 6 am budget meeting dressed in his bathrobe and arguing that the meeting had been scheduled too early for public participation.