Published November 4 , 2009
By Savas Fortis
Administrators of Quebec’s largest municipalities got mixed messages following yesterday’s province wide municipal elections. While the message in Montreal was not clear as Gerald Tremblay won a minority re-election in Quebec City Régis Labeaume mayor elect admitted last night that his majority, close to 80 per cent, was larger than he expected. In Laval Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt won an unprecedented sixth successive term with 61% percent of the vote while his councilors won all twenty one council seats.
Montrealers breaking with a long standing tradition of electing councilors and mayors from the same political party returned the Union Montreal chief back to office with 37% of the vote while punishing some of his familiar cohorts. The victory margin was 4%, enough to squeeze past Vision Montreal leader Louise Harel who garnered 33 per cent of the vote. Richard Bergeron, the leader of Projet Montréal, had 25 per cent. Interestingly enough Tremblay was returned to office despite scandalous accusations of corruption at city hall which had fueled a derogatory piece in MacLean’s magazine on the decline of this once proud city.
Looking at Montreal politics this was the first time a mayor has been returned for a third term in office since Mayor Drapeau won re-election in 1966. In his victory speech Tremblay acknowledged that Montrealers’ trust was shaken, conceding the role that a series of allegations of corruption at city hall played in the race. He affirmed that citizens want change and reaffirmed his conviction that his party embodies that change. The voting results do not seem to confirm his conviction.
One has to wonder what the fate of Vision Montreal would have been if its leader Louise Harel was not such a polarizing figure, being a hard line separatists and former PQ minister. Throw into the mix that Projet Montreal managed to wrestle away 25% of the vote from the established combatants and the message is clear, we want change but maybe not you or maybe not now.
Taking a closer look at the results in Laval the opposition candidates Lydia Aboulian of the Mouvement Lavallois and Robert Bordeleau of the Parti au Service du Citoyen together wrested 39 per cent votes from the incumbent. It was a much stronger showing for the opposition than in 2005 when Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt won 75 per cent of the vote. In fact despite electing all twenty one councilors Yvon Martineau of the Saint Bruno riding won with a 328 vote margin and only 47.3% of the vote. Jean Jacques Beldie of Laval-les-Iles won with 52.5% of the vote and newly elected Martin Beaugrand managed to win in Fabreville with 54.4% of the vote which was much less than long time incumbent Andre Boileau was used to delivering. So while in Laval a clear majority was won some opposition pundits will try to take solace in the fact that it was not as sweeping in scope as in 2005.
In Longueuil Caroline St-Hilaire appeared well on her way to winning the Longueuil mayoralty over Goyette, currently vice-chairman of the city council’s executive committee, and the right-hand man of outgoing Longueuil mayor Claude Gladu. Their party, the Parti municipal de Longueuil had been in power in Longueuil for 27 years.
Though the winds of change altered the face of American politics this past year an unexpectedly long lasting recession and the fear of the pandemic swine flu may have generated enough uncertainty in people to derail their appetite for change, for now. While the messages around Montreal’s off island shores were clear as candidates were rewarded or reproved based on their records, the politic picture of municipal politics on the island is muddled. At best Mayor Tremblay could take away from the results that Montrealers are giving him one more chance to atone for his oversights in managing this city. Many political pundits will argue that this is the mayor’s last stand as Montrealers chose the road more travelled. In times of great uncertainty an old axiom may have actually made the difference. Maybe Montrealers decided it was safer to live with the devil you know rather than risk that the one you do not know.