Mayor Boyer, opposition pledge to work collaboratively over next four years
Laval’s new mayor vowed to work with all the city’s elected officials, regardless of their political affiliation, during a swearing-in ceremony for the new city council held at the municipality’s interim-meeting chamber on Saint Martin Blvd. West in the downtown core last Saturday afternoon.
A subdued ceremony
While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic meant greatly limiting attendance to the officials and a few of their relatives and friends, a video feed of the event was broadcast live over the Internet for other Laval residents.
However, the usual pageantry seen at such ceremonies in the past also had to be curtailed due the fact Laval City Hall on Souvenir Rd. is currently closed for a four-year-long renovation and refurbishment project.
“Often in politics, people who are running are wished good luck,” Stéphane Boyer, who led the incumbent Mouvement lavallois administration to re-election with 14 out of 21 seats, said in a short speech.
‘About democracy,’ said Boyer
“But becoming a municipal councillor isn’t luck, it’s work. All of you here have worked arduously for months – some of you for years – to get where you are today. You fully deserve it. And so, I would like to wish you sincere congratulations. Politics rises well above our role as individuals. It’s well above our being elected. It’s a question of maintaining a healthy democracy.
“When we talk of justice, humanity, respect, these are all important as they safeguard institutions, so that today we have a very good quality of life compared to many other areas of the world,” Boyer added. “So, what I would hope today for at least the next four years is that we should remember the commitment we have just finished making, for ourselves as much as for the citizens.”
‘New beginning,’ said Revelakis
For newly-elected Action Laval city councillors, the swearing-in was the culmination of many years of efforts. “Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for everybody in Laval, and I think that we all have to collaborate for the benefit of the people in our districts,” re-elected Action Laval city councillor for Chomedey Aglaia Revelakis said in an interview with the Laval News.
“Eight years of hard work and I’m glad to be here,” said Archie Cifelli, the new city councillor for Laval’s Val-des-Arbres district. Isabelle Piché, who won Saint-François for Action Laval while defeating the district’s incumbent Mouvement lavallois councillor Éric Morasse, is the spouse of Saint-Bruno city councillor David De Cotis.
A bit of trivia: She and De Cotis were the founders of the Mouvement lavallois back in the days when the Vaillancourt administration hadn’t yet fallen out of favour and there was no opposition to speak of at Laval city hall.
Several renewed mandates
Although De Cotis at one time sat as vice-president of the Demers administration’s executive-committee, he gave up the position and eventually defected to Action Laval, complaining that Demers had abandoned the democratic and transparent values of the Mouvement lavallois.
This will be the third mandate won by Action Laval St-Vincent-de-Paul city councillor Paolo Galati. “I’m really happy and proud that I continue to have the confidence of the citizens of my district,” he said. “It’s an honor for me to be able to continue my role as city councillor, to help revitalize the east of Laval.”
