Roger Ferland

Roger Ferland is a retired politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He was the mayor of Longueuil from 1987 to 1994, having previously served as a school commissioner and as a member of the Longueuil city council.

Ferland was a computer specialist in private life who worked for several years with Hydro-Québec. He was first elected as a school commissioner in 1972, and at one time he served as a school board chair.

Ferland was a founding member of the Parti municipal de Longueuil and was first elected to council under its banner in 1978. The results of the 1978 election were inconclusive: Parti civique de Longueuil leader Marcel Robidas was re-elected as mayor, but the Parti municipal won nine of seventeen seats and initially held a functioning majority on council until one of its representatives was expelled from the party.

Ferland served as the Parti municipal's main spokesperson on council in this period in place of party leader Paul Viau, who did not seek a council seat in 1978 and was defeated in that year's mayoral contest. Ferland considered running for party leader in 1981 after Viau's resignation, but he ultimately stood aside in favour of Jacques Finet.

Ferland was re-elected in the 1982 municipal election, which was won by the Parti municipal under Finet's leadership. Ferland was chosen as council speaker after the election. He was returned for a third term in the 1986 municipal election, in which the Parti municipal won every council seat.

In November 1986, Ferland was appointed as a director of the Montreal South Shore Transit Corp.

Jacques Finet resigned as mayor in April 1987, and Ferland was chosen without opposition to be the Parti municipal's new leader and mayoral candidate for a by-election the following month. He promised "continuity" in government and said that he would introduce more friendly "customer-client" relations between Longueuil residents and municipal employees. On election day, Ferland defeated Jacques Olivier, a former member of the Canadian House of Commons, by a significant margin. He was sworn in as mayor on June 10, 1987.

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