Now that Denis Coderre is running for Montreal mayor, it's time to have a look at the last time a federal Liberal MP attempted to get elected to the big chair on Notre Dame... an effort dashed by an unexpected revelation.Liberal MP Serge Joyal's Montreal Action Group sought to topple longtime mayor Jean Drapeau in the November election of 1978.
Joyal, 33, was a young lawyer and as hot as could be, blasting through a variety of law degrees and showing great energy in every task he was given.
Joyal's father had some notoriety as the butcher of Beaubien... literally - his dad had a butcher shop in Rosemount so Joyal came from humble beginnings.
Joyal was a strong federalist with a lot of energy and appeared exactly what the city needed to topple the geriatric Jean Drapeau whose long reign had shown some wear, especially due to the Olympic fiasco, which left the city highly in debt.
So the city appeared ripe for Joyal's taking.
Joyal did a ton of handshaking in the spring of 1978 but then suddenly and disappointingly disappeared for many crucial weeks, a time when he should have been making news and pressing flesh on the rubber chicken circuit, much to the chagrin of his supporters, who had been organizing, meeting, brainstorming very frequently.
His helpers figured he might be out at the cottage with his knockout of a girlfriend, who would presumably eventually eventually join him in wedding bliss.But Joyal returned and announced that he had an epiphany.
He told his team that he was gay.
This in itself wasn't necessarily a big deal, as the media remained respectful of his privacy, only making read-between-the-lines references to him being a bachelor, living with his mother and collecting antiques.
But the revelation was problematic because Joyal suddenly lost his all of his previous feverish interest.
Instead of concentrating on his campaign, Joyal appeared considerably more interested in exploring the implications of his newly-discovered self.
On November, 12, 1978 Drapeau beat Joyal comfortably with 212,000 votes to 89,000.
Joyal then returned to Ottawa where he became Trudeau's point man on the official bilingualism policy. He also fought hard for the right to air traffic controllers to talk in French in their communications, a bit of a ridiculous issue in retrospect.
While never, to my knowledge, announcing himself publicly as gay, Joyal fought alongside Svend Robinson many years ago for the right to gay marriage.
He was eventually named to the senate and has been there for many years.