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A colorful figure, Ernest Crépeault won five elections—two of them by acclamation—and ruled the city of Anjou from its founding in 1956 until 1973, a period during which the population grew from just over 2,000 people to more than 34,000. Ernest Crépeault’s regime consolidated power in a monopolistic manner by allying itself with a range of actors and actively discouraging political participation. This article examines the mechanisms through which political participation was curtailed and identifies the actors who benefited from this process. Revisiting the history of Anjou, it shows how a form of civic incapacity took shape—understood here as the erosion of citizen participation and civic vigilance in municipal affairs. This case study speaks directly to current debates in urban history on local democracy, municipal apoliticism, and political participation in suburban contexts. Drawing on existing scholarship, I argue that recently developed, rapidly growing suburbs constitute a particularly favourable context for depoliticization. However, I also contend that this depoliticization was neither natural nor inevitable, but rather the result of actions and discourses advanced by elites with a stake in political quiescence. The article’s central claim is that rapid suburban growth was decisive in enabling the formation of Ernest Crépeault’s political monopoly. The Crépeault regime mobilized a rhetoric rooted in the ideal of a peaceful and autonomous suburb in order to discourage political engagement, while exploiting rapid land development to secure alliances with actors both within and beyond Anjou, thereby sustaining its hold on power for seventeen years.