Richard Bergeron
Leader of Projet Montréal
Leader of the 2nd opposition at City Hall
City Councillor, Jeanne-Mance district, Plateau-Mont-Roya
Richard Bergeron was born in 1955 in Alma, in the Lac Saint-Jean area. He came to Montreal in 1975 to study architecture at the Université de Montréal. He practiced architecture for two years before undertaking a Master’s degree in Urban Studies. In 1986, he enrolled once again at the Université de Montréal, this time in a doctoral program in Urban Planning, with a focus on urban policies in developing countries and involving a case study in Côte d’Ivoire. Concurrently, he taught at the Institut d’urbanisme. Involved in several research projects on urban policy, the management of urban services and the environment, he travelled extensively, namely in Burkina Faso, Haïti and Morocco. From 1990 to 1992, Richard Bergeron was President of the Fédération des coopératives d’habitation de l’île de Montréal.
In 1992-1993, he held the post of visiting professor at Université Laval, in the Master’s Program in Regional Planning and Development. There followed two years of research on the economics of housing development at the Université de Montréal. From 1996, Richard Bergeron became a consultant for the Ministère de la métropole, whereby he conducted ten studies on the potential redevelopment of vacant lots around Montreal metro stations. He went on to serve as an analyst and editor for the group in charge of transportation at the Mécanisme québécois de concertation sur les changements climatiques. From 2000 to 2005, he was in charge of strategic analysis for the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT).
Over the course of his professional career, Richard Bergeron has worked on nearly all aspects of urban development, overall planning, the economics of real estate, service management, the environment, transportation, etc. His publications, reports and lectures on these subjects are standard reference among his peers, theoreticians and practitioners alike.
In 2004, having come to the conclusion that the main impediment to the adoption of an overall fair and sustainable approach to urban development was of a political nature, Richard Bergeron founded Projet Montréal. Less than a year later, in the election of November 2005, he was elected city councillor for De Lorimier district in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough. Over the course of the next four years, he divided his time between the tasks of an elected official and those of establishing a new municipal party. In the Montreal municipal election of 2009, in which he once again ran for mayor, he received 25% of the vote and 14 members of his party were elected city and borough councillors.
Richard Bergeron is the author of several books, including “L’anti-développement : le prix du libéralisme” published in 1991 by éditions L’Harmattan, “Le livre noir de l’automobile” published in 1999 by Éditions Hypothèse, “L’économie de l’automobile au Québec” published in 2003 by Éditions Hypothèse, and “Les Québécois au volant, c’est mortel” published in 2005 by Les Intouchables.
Richard Bergeron is married to Amina and is the father of two children, Guillaume and Nadianie.
