Former Mayor Jean Dore, who ran five times for Montreal mayor and was elected twice, has died after a bout with pancreatic cancer at age 70.
Dore was born in Rosemont in 1945 but grew up in Laval. He had a younger sister but four other would-be siblings died in infancy. His mom wanted him to be a priest and his dad hoped he would sell insurance. He became president of his student association at the Universite de Montreal in 1967 and was mentioned in the Toronto Star. He went on to study political science at McGill at worked at the news department of Radio Canada.
Dore became press secretary to Rene Levesque for the 1970 provincial campaign and he was a member of the Mouvement Souverainete Association. He was laid off from the PQ after the election and then headed a consumer advocacy group and hosted a 30-part series on advertising in Quebec (see sample below.)
Dore, it should be noted, had an usually deep and pleasant voice, an attribute which surely accelerated his rise.
He remained a PQ member until 1975 and later said that he had never been a hardcore separatist although some others challenged that claim.
Dore worked as a labour lawyer at the CNTU and at age 32, he headed something called the Quebec Human Rights League and/or the Civil Liberties Union, which criticized the RCMP's treatment of domestic political activities.
Dore came onto the municipal scene at a time when Montrealers were becoming disenchanted with the ageless Mayor Jean Drapeau, who dominated city hall with only a bit of token opposition from a couple of anglos in the form of councillors Michael Fainstadt and Nick Auf der Maur.
![]()
He was chosen to run for mayor by the Montreal Citizens Movement - then seen as the anglo party in 1982 at the age of 37.
He had little hope, as the party had only a single councillor at the time but he attracted a respectable 37 percent of the vote.
He got a seat on council in 1984 and gained a voice as a critic of the Drapeau regime.
Drapeau retired in 1986 and Dore, who had not attracted much attention, was suddenly deemed the man to beat.
Unions, community groups and all sorts of folks rushed to the once-fringe MCM and the party became a sudden unstoppable force.
Dore became mayor in 1986 beating rival Dupras, taking 55 of 58 councill seats. He was re-elected in 1990 with 59 percent support.
Dore ran for a third mandate in 1994 and was dead even with Pierre Bourque in polls prior to the vote. But Bourque - the gardener known for his work at the Botanical Gardens - was popular with the elderly voters that actually show up to cast ballots. In 1994 Dore was crushed by a 47 percent to 32 percent margin and his era as chief was over.
I interviewed Dore one-on-one during that campaign and recall that he was talking fast and emphatically but not connecting with his words. I wasn't shocked when he lost.
Dore led a typical personal life, working out at the gym, playing hockey and windsurfing. He slept eight hours a night and was a cook and a handyman in his spare time at his Montreal home and country place in the Laurentians.
He was married and had at least one child and they lived on the south side of Sherbrooke just east of the Main, a spot some found ironic because the building benefited from a lovely view at the expense of low-cost housing demolished on St. Norbert in the 70s, seen as one of Drapeau's many sins.
Dore lay low in his later years and put on a lot of weight, which he lost after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was employed in some administrative position by the Caisse Desjardins.
As mayor Dore ruled in difficult times, as the real estate market crashed early in his reign and he was forced to raise business taxes, which also proved massively unpopular.
His handling of the Overdale dossier also cost him much support as many of his most loyal councillors quit in protest. Indeed Dore's actions might have personally cost me about $80,000.
Here's why: as a tenant at 1450 Kinkora on the Overdale block, I should have been eligible to negotiate the terms of my departure as the new landlords wanted to demolish the building. Back then the price for such a departure was about $10,000 (compounded at 7% that turns into $80k 30 years later). Instead of allowing the free market to take its natural course, Dore and his once-tenant activist sidekick John Gardiner - along with some nasty public relations smears from opposition councillor Nick Auf Der Maur - manufactured consent to condemn the apartments as firetraps. This forced us out at no cost to the benefit of landowners Douglas Cohen and Robert Landau who then allowed the land to stay empty until they sold it a couple of years ago.
Dore's decision to rename Dorchester to Rene Levesque was also considered by some as divisive but perhaps he believed he had a consensus after Gazette columnist Don Macpherson said it was a good plan.
Dore was credited with other accomplishments, overseeing a master plan for the city, encouraging transparency at city hall and creating a beach - playfully called Plage Dore, ie golden beach, in his honour, but the great expectations of Montrealers for a great halcyon era following the Drapeau regime were perhaps too large and as a result, many have linked his name with disappointment.
Dore was born in Rosemont in 1945 but grew up in Laval. He had a younger sister but four other would-be siblings died in infancy. His mom wanted him to be a priest and his dad hoped he would sell insurance. He became president of his student association at the Universite de Montreal in 1967 and was mentioned in the Toronto Star. He went on to study political science at McGill at worked at the news department of Radio Canada.
Dore became press secretary to Rene Levesque for the 1970 provincial campaign and he was a member of the Mouvement Souverainete Association. He was laid off from the PQ after the election and then headed a consumer advocacy group and hosted a 30-part series on advertising in Quebec (see sample below.)
Dore, it should be noted, had an usually deep and pleasant voice, an attribute which surely accelerated his rise.
He remained a PQ member until 1975 and later said that he had never been a hardcore separatist although some others challenged that claim.
Dore worked as a labour lawyer at the CNTU and at age 32, he headed something called the Quebec Human Rights League and/or the Civil Liberties Union, which criticized the RCMP's treatment of domestic political activities.
Dore came onto the municipal scene at a time when Montrealers were becoming disenchanted with the ageless Mayor Jean Drapeau, who dominated city hall with only a bit of token opposition from a couple of anglos in the form of councillors Michael Fainstadt and Nick Auf der Maur.
He was chosen to run for mayor by the Montreal Citizens Movement - then seen as the anglo party in 1982 at the age of 37.He had little hope, as the party had only a single councillor at the time but he attracted a respectable 37 percent of the vote.
He got a seat on council in 1984 and gained a voice as a critic of the Drapeau regime.
Drapeau retired in 1986 and Dore, who had not attracted much attention, was suddenly deemed the man to beat.
Unions, community groups and all sorts of folks rushed to the once-fringe MCM and the party became a sudden unstoppable force.
Dore became mayor in 1986 beating rival Dupras, taking 55 of 58 councill seats. He was re-elected in 1990 with 59 percent support.
Dore ran for a third mandate in 1994 and was dead even with Pierre Bourque in polls prior to the vote. But Bourque - the gardener known for his work at the Botanical Gardens - was popular with the elderly voters that actually show up to cast ballots. In 1994 Dore was crushed by a 47 percent to 32 percent margin and his era as chief was over.
I interviewed Dore one-on-one during that campaign and recall that he was talking fast and emphatically but not connecting with his words. I wasn't shocked when he lost.
 |
| MCM's Michel Prescott, Jean Dore, John Gardiner, Sam Boskey and Michel Cardnial c. 1984 |
He was married and had at least one child and they lived on the south side of Sherbrooke just east of the Main, a spot some found ironic because the building benefited from a lovely view at the expense of low-cost housing demolished on St. Norbert in the 70s, seen as one of Drapeau's many sins.
Dore lay low in his later years and put on a lot of weight, which he lost after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was employed in some administrative position by the Caisse Desjardins.
As mayor Dore ruled in difficult times, as the real estate market crashed early in his reign and he was forced to raise business taxes, which also proved massively unpopular.
His handling of the Overdale dossier also cost him much support as many of his most loyal councillors quit in protest. Indeed Dore's actions might have personally cost me about $80,000.
Here's why: as a tenant at 1450 Kinkora on the Overdale block, I should have been eligible to negotiate the terms of my departure as the new landlords wanted to demolish the building. Back then the price for such a departure was about $10,000 (compounded at 7% that turns into $80k 30 years later). Instead of allowing the free market to take its natural course, Dore and his once-tenant activist sidekick John Gardiner - along with some nasty public relations smears from opposition councillor Nick Auf Der Maur - manufactured consent to condemn the apartments as firetraps. This forced us out at no cost to the benefit of landowners Douglas Cohen and Robert Landau who then allowed the land to stay empty until they sold it a couple of years ago.
Dore's decision to rename Dorchester to Rene Levesque was also considered by some as divisive but perhaps he believed he had a consensus after Gazette columnist Don Macpherson said it was a good plan.
Dore was credited with other accomplishments, overseeing a master plan for the city, encouraging transparency at city hall and creating a beach - playfully called Plage Dore, ie golden beach, in his honour, but the great expectations of Montrealers for a great halcyon era following the Drapeau regime were perhaps too large and as a result, many have linked his name with disappointment.