Published November 4, 2009
By Geneviève April• TLN
Candidates with the Mouvement lavallois, who gathered together on election night, were philosophical. If they hadn’t succeeded in breaking into the ranks of the administration in power this time, they could at least see a desire for change in the ballotting’s results.
“People are expressing and saying they want a change and are satisfied to see some opposition in a city where there hasn’t been any in such a long time,” said Lydia Aboulian, who ran for mayor with the party. “What we managed to do in eight months is incredible, so imagine what we will do in four years,” she added with elation towards the end of the night.
Back in four years
The team, composed of political neophytes for the most part, listened to the results with stoicism. Then the good-humoured conversations started up again, their projects over the next term being the most popular topic. “I hope to present myself again in four years,” promised Aboulian. “Until then, I will be attending city council meetings and I will be making sure my voice is heard.”
The candidates all maintained they would be back even stronger in four years time. Benoît Fauteux, who represented ML in the district of Duvernay/Pont Viau, said he got a lot out of the experience. “People appreciated the debate, the alternative,” he said.
Candidates for ML, who ran in Laval’s 21 districts, all pointed out the enormity of the task they accomplished, taking into account the financial means they had available. “We were all self-financed,” said Emilio Migliozzi, who was defeated in l’Orée-des-Bois, running against France Dubreuil of the Parti PRO des Lavallois. “We made a campaign with a total budget of less than $40,000. It’s unheard of,” added the businessman who ran as an independent against Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt four years ago.
“We are pleased, even if no one was elected,” said David de Cotis, ML’s president. The Vaillancourt machine has many more means than we do. Despite everything, we have built something solid and we fought a good fight with modest means.”
“Tonight gave us the opportunity to affirm ourselves as a party,” added Aboulian. “People have heard the message, they realize that we are a party that is realistic and credible. The ML is a young party, but in four years we will be accomplishing much more.”
Even though no candidate with the Parti PRO was ever really threatened, the margin separating some from their adversaries was closer than with others. In any case, that was the situation with Yvan Martineau, the incumbent Parti PRO candidate in Saint-Bruno, who won his match against David de Cotis with a 47.2 per cent share of votes, compared to 41.2 per cent for de Cotis.
Noteworthy also was the showing of Manuel Botelho, an independent candidate supported by ML, who tried to snatch the district of Saint-Martin from Alexandre Duplessis, the incumbent from the Parti PRO. Duplessis won with 58.6 per cent support, against 41.4 per cent for Botelho.
The leader of the Parti au service du citoyen and candidate for the mayoralty, Robert Bordeleau, declined to comment on his election results and those of his party. Bordeleau, who was taking part in his fourth election campaign in Laval, finished third with 14.9 per cent of the votes, behind Aboulian, for whom this was a first experience in politics. Of all the candidates running for the PSC, only Sophie Hébert, managed to get more than 25 per cent support. She garnered 27.1 per cent running against Martine Beauregard of the PRO, who had 54.4 per cent support in Fabreville.