Former Montreal Mayor Jean Dore, who ruled the city for parts of eight years, has told the Journal de Montreal that he has pancreatic cancer.
He told a reporter that he is living "day to day" and battling the illness that sprung up on him out of nowhere.
"It was a shock to me and my family. It is a vicious cancer, I had no symptoms. I did not expect it at all," he told the newspaper.
Dore, 69, took over the mayoralty in 1986, replacing longtime Mayor Jean Drapeau, who had ruled the city for all but three of the 32 years prior to that. He won the November 1986 election with an impressive 68 percent of the vote in a landslide for the Montreal Citizens Movement.
Dore won again in 1990, attracting 59 percent of votes but difficult economic conditions forced him to take some unpopular measures, including raising business taxes.
Dore, known for his trademark moustache and mellifluous voice, was beaten by Pierre Bourque in 1994 and again in 1998,
Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all the major cancers with only one in 20 surviving five years after diagnosis and three of four dying within a year of diagnosis.
