Richard Bergeron founded the Projet Montréal party. (Photo courtesy of Projet Montréal)As both Mayor Gérald Tremblay and Vision Montréal Leader Louise Harel fend off allegations of questionable party financing activities, Projet Montréal Leader Richard Bergeron is making ethics a top priority of his campaign.

Bergeron, whose party has focused primarily on environmental and public transportation issues in the past, recruited John Gomery, the head of the inquiry into the federal sponsorship scandal, to watch over the party's fundraising campaign.

Gomery has said that Bergeron is the only candidate who can truly clean up city hall.

Born in 1955, Bergeron has a background in architecture and received his doctorate in urban planning from the University of Montreal in 1991.

Bergeron taught at the urban planning department at Laval University in Quebec City, as well as at the Institut d’Urbanisme of the University of Montreal and in the master of science program at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM).

From 2000 to 2005, Bergeron was responsible for strategic analysis at the Metropolitan Transport Agency (AMT).

Bergeron is also the author of several books about the negative effects of cars, including L’économie de l’automobile au Québec and Les Québécois au volant, c'est mortel.

His most recent book, Les Quebecois au volant, c’est mortel, published in 2005, drew criticism for alleging that the government of former U.S. president George W. Bush may have played a role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Bergeron has since tried to distance himself from those comments.

In 2004, Bergeron founded the Projet Montreal party.

In November 2005, he became the party’s mayoral candidate, earning 8.5 per cent of the vote, and has sat as the party’s first elected councillor representing the De Lorimier district in the Plateau borough.

Since then, the party’s numbers have risen following the recruitment of two defectors – Plateau borough councillor Josee Duplessis from Union Montréal, and city councillor for the Sainte-Marie district, Pierre Mainville.