Government Of Laval

Government

Municipal politics

As of 2008, Gilles Vaillancourt is the mayor of the city of Laval. He has been in office since 1989. Vaillancourt’s party, the Parti PRO des Lavallois, was born in 1980. Vaillancourt took over as head of the party just before the 1989 municipal elections.

Past mayors have been:

• Jean-Noël Lavoie (founding mayor), 1965
• Jacques Tétreault, 1965-1973
• Dr. Lucien Paiement, 1973-1981
• Claude U. Lefebvre, 1981-1989

Flag, seal and motto

On a white-yellow background, the emblem of Laval illustrates the modernism of a city in full expansion. The sign of the city symbolizes the “L” of Laval.

The colours also have a significant meaning :

• Dark red represents usually the affluence and represents here the great economic potential of Laval.
• Blue symbolizes the quality of life and the installation of a human city.

The “L” of Laval is made of cubes that represent the development of Laval.

The letters of the Laval signature are related one to the other to point out the merger of the 14 municipalities of Jesus island in 1965.

The logo (that is on the flag) has existed since the 1980s and the flag since the 1990s.

Federal and provincial politics

Politically, Laval is a battleground area between the Quebec nationalist parties (the Bloc Québécois federally and the Parti Québécoisprovincially) and the federalist parties (the Liberal Party of Canada and the Parti libéral du Québec). The only exception is Chomedey in the south, which voted overwhelmingly to not separate in the 1995 Quebec referendum. The other parts of Laval were narrowly split.