Updated yesterday at 8:59 p.m.
After a life committed to community and politics, André Lavallée died Sunday morning at the age of 70, his wife Chantale Bertrand announced on Facebook. We owe him, in particular, the first urban plan of the City of Montreal and the creation of BIXI.
“It is with great sadness that I announce that my lover André died this morning”, announced Chantale Bertrand on the Facebook page of the former politician in the evening on Sunday. “André was a loving husband, caring father and grandfather. He leaves a significant legacy in his Montreal community, and more particularly the east end of Montreal and his beloved Rosemont neighborhood, both through his militant involvement and his public functions that he held. »
André Lavallée died of cancer, surrounded by his loved ones at the St-Raphaël palliative care home in Montreal on Sunday morning.
The politician was mayor of the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie borough and vice-president of the Montréal executive committee from 2005 to 2009, under the banner of Union Montréal. He has also held several positions with the Government of Quebec and within cultural organizations in Montreal. We owe him in particular the first urban plan of Montreal, adopted in 1992 at the time of the mayor Jean Doré. He was also behind the city’s first transportation plan in the 2000s. He also contributed to the redevelopment of the former Angus factories and the creation of the BIXI bike-sharing system.
“It was a project factory, he was going 140 kilometers per hour and you had to follow him! “, recalls Mario Fortin, a longtime friend of André Lavallée and owner of the Beaubien cinema, in Rosemont.
“André Lavallée was truly a visionary and a chess player who brought people from different backgrounds together to move a project forward,” continues Mr. Fortin. And all this for the advancement of Rosemont, Montreal and collective well-being. »
For Vincent Marissal, deputy for Rosemont, André Lavallée was a “monument” in the neighborhood. “He’s really someone who was able to get over his own partisanship [politique], because for him it was really Rosemont and the east of Montreal, the priority. He had Rosemont tattooed on his heart.
An online tribute
The death of André Lavallée was quick to react on social networks, collecting hundreds of messages of sympathy on Facebook.
“It is with sadness that I learned of the death of André Lavallée, a great Montrealer who gave so much to our city,” also wrote on Twitter the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante. “We will continue his work to build a Montreal that resembles us. All my sympathies to the family and loved ones of Mr. Lavallée. »
The leader of the official opposition, Aref Salem, offered his condolences to the family of Mr. Lavallée on Twitter: “ […] He devoted his life to public affairs. Thank you for your huge contribution! My condolences to Chantale and her family. »
Occasional photographer
One of André Lavallée’s last legacies is a photographic exhibition entitled Montreal: Figures and Fragments, presented on avenue du Mont-Royal, between rue Rivard and rue Resther, until September 5. “Because the city is basically an imaginary space that only comes to life through the project of a community to inhabit it in its own way, unique, like no other,” Mr. Lavallée wrote about the exhibition. “I’ve always had the conviction that to be an actor in your city, you first had to witness its daily life. »