The official election results page – nicely organized, I must say – makes interesting reading this morning. Gérald Tremblay is mayor with 37.5% of the vote, against 32.86% for Louise Harel and 25.67% for Richard Bergeron. Bergeron's Projet swept all seven positions in the Plateau. Linda Gyulai reports on the mixed message sent by voters.

Few mayors can have won back their seat with so little approval, summed up in this Le Devoir editorial which points out that Tremblay mostly owes his win to Louise Harel's inability to summon up sufficient support and goes on to warn him he'd better shape up because the parties in opposition will be on his case. In the same paper, Michel David bewails the city's besmirched reputation and the re-election of Tremblay.

In La Presse, Yves Boisvert sings a similar tune, reminding the mayor that, though he may have won, it wasn't for very good reasons. Other editorialists and opinion-makers concur that Tremblay may have won but he still has to win back the confidence of citizens.

La Presse is also evoking the spectre of Quebec basically taking the reins and making the city its direct financial ward which would not, shall we say, look so good.

No, the opposition politicians have their work cut out. They're the ones that will have to keep a sharp eye on this new Tremblay administration and make it clean up its act, or else next time it will be the one hung out to dry. posted at 08:52