Tremblay finally loses popularity
Gérald Tremblay – whom Montrealers should have punted last election – has finally begun to lose the confidence of voters although La Presse notes that having him resign right now would be costly because more than a year remains before the 2013 elections. Election law says that more than a year’s gap requires a new election for mayor. Less than a year, and city council can appoint an interim mayor, which is a bit of a kludge but saves the cost of an island-wide election process. Anyway, Pauline Marois thinks Tremblay ought to go and continues to adumbrate the possibility of putting the city under trusteeship.
The person most Montrealers want to replace Tremblay is Denis Coderre – so strange, considering he’s got no municipal experience at all, but in personality he does seem to be the polar opposite of Tremblay and maybe that’s what the people want now. Coderre remains mum, only continuing to say he’ll announce his plans next month.
david m 13:07 on 2012/10/07 Permalink
coderre has no municipal experience, no known positions on any city issue, no executive experience of any kind apart from his 22 months as federal immigration minister, and a base in a part of the island that scarcely counts as montreal. he’s untelegenic, has virtually no record of achievement (again, aside from those 22 months of sitting atop the pile at immigration), and he oozes the sort of backroom dealing and moral flexibility that has brought us so low in the first place (he was even vaguely implicated in the sponsorship scandal, which strikes me as just the sort of politics this guy runs). it’s not even clear where he sits, even generally-speaking, on the public spectrum. yet, at the outset, he’s barreling toward the mayoralty at an unstoppable clip. it’s puzzling and deeply embarrassing.
Kate 13:40 on 2012/10/07 Permalink
Back in August Coderre said he was going to aim either for mayor of Montreal or federal Liberal chief. With Justin Trudeau officially in the latter race I imagine Coderre knows it would be pointless to try. I think it’s a fair guess Coderre will be on the city ballot in November 2013.
david m, I have a few quibbles with your statement. Coderre represents Bourassa, which may not feel like Montreal to you but is truly part of the city. Happens it also bridges Montreal North, parts of Rivière-des-Prairies and parts of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, which means he’s got a bridgehead already in three boroughs.
Also I disagree with your statement he’s untelegenic. No, he’s not a handsome guy, but he has a sort of well-defined look and has been building his image on Twitter and elsewhere to be perceived as a gaillard – a good French word that’s hard to translate. Even while sharing some of your concerns that we don’t know a thing about his politics – he’s no theoretician – and agreeing we need to know how he stands on issues relating to Montreal and its relationship with Quebec, some part of me would like to see how Montreal would fare if we had a tough mayor with a sense of humour. Maybe it’s simply that, a feeling that Coderre embodies a certain toughness and joie-de-vivre that we haven’t seen at city hall, that has Montrealers already half ready to crown him as mayor even though we don’t even know which party he’d join.
Jack said some time back on this blog that with Coderre as mayor here we’d have a Napoleon to rival Quebec’s Mayor Labeaume. There might be some of that too. Labeaume’s prepared to fight for what he wants. Maybe we could have someone like that.
It’s going to be an interesting election.
Here’s openparliament’s Denis Coderre page which won’t help us with how he’d approach municipal issues, but might give a better picture of his politics generally.
Faiz Imam 18:05 on 2012/10/07 Permalink
When are the elections next year?
Marc 22:04 on 2012/10/07 Permalink
First Sunday of November, I believe.
Philip 07:48 on 2012/10/08 Permalink
Michel Labrecque for mayor. And keep him at the STM. And appoint him King of whatever becomes of the AMT.