Montreal Municipal Elections 2009: Your Guide to the Candidates
Vote on November 1st!
Find Out How: http://election-montreal.qc.ca/index.en.html
About Montreal City Elections
Municipal elections in Montreal, and every other city in Quebec, will be held on November 1st 2009. The city is divided into boroughs, for which a mayor and councilors are elected. Electors throughout Montreal also vote for the mayor and for a city council, except for cities such as Westmount who de-merged entirely from Montreal and for which a single vote for mayor and city council will be registered. Therefore, you most likely will be asked to cast four distinct votes.
There are three full-fledged political parties vying for election this time around, all three of which have relatively detailed programs and articulated divisions for the future of Montreal. This is relative luxury for voters, as typically municipal elections are all about the mayoral candidates, and political parties are little more than support systems for these central figures. This election is also one of the most interesting in terms of the strength of the political forces in place. The incumbent mayor, Gérald Tremblay (Union Montréal) has served for two four-year terms and has provincial political experience as minister and MNA. The main challenger, Louise Harel (Vision Montréal) was minister of municipalities and has introduced the Act merging the various cities on the island of Montreal such as Outremont into the greater city of Montreal, and has been a career provincial minister and served as MNA for 26 consecutive years. Interestingly, Tremblay was an MNA for the Quebec Liberal Party while Harel served as a Parti Québecois politician. The third party, Projet Montréal, is a grassroots progressive party led by a vigorous leader, Richard Bergeron, and has made modest gains in terms of seats in the course of the last years. All three parties are very good at defending their ideas and can make a good case for you to vote for them. We recommend you visit all three of their websites to make up your mind!
To find out where to vote and what district you live in, visit http://election-montreal.qc.ca/index.en.html.
http://www.projetmontreal.org/
Projet Montreal is the newest of the three main parties in Montreal municipal politics. Founded in 2004, in advance of the 2005 municipal election, the party has largely found its niche in advocating an agenda of sustainable urbanism. Currently the party has 3 elected members in the 64-member City Council: 2 representing the borough of Plateau Mont-Royal and one representing the borough of Ville-Marie. The party leader and mayoral candidate is Richard Bergeron, who is presently one of Projet Montreal’s sitting Councilors. Currently in their second election, the party is running a stronger campaign at both the borough levels and the city level. Many observers say that Projet Montreal is the only of the three parties that was founded for reasons other than specifically supporting an individual mayoral candidate.
Mayoral Candidate:
Richard Bergeron
Video of Richard Bergeron
Highlight of the party platform, relating to transit, environment and housing:
Transit
- Reduce fare of CAM (monthly fare) $60.00 and $30.00 for the reduced student fare
- Free transit for internal movements within the downtown
- improve night service and increase volume of buses and frequency of metro service
- gradually replace current fleet of diesel buses with quieter buses that pollute less, including hybrids and electric trolleys
- build a train shuttle from downtown Montreal to the Trudeau Airport
- Increase bike paths
Environment
- Aim to reduce GHG emissions produced in the territory of Montreal by 30% by 2020 and by 80% before 2050 as stipulated in the Declaration of Mayors and Municipal Managerd on Climate Change, signed in Montreal in 2005
- Aim to reduce number of days of poor air quality by 50% within next 10 years
- Encourage residential areas that are quieter and built on a human scale and connected to public transit Increase green spaces.
- Encourage pedestrian neighbourhoods.
- Increase bike paths, improve their security and ensure that they be properly maintained
- Promote urban agriculture and aim to maintain supply of community gardens in lower-income neighbourhoods
Rent and Housing
- Built 1,500 social and affordable housing units per year
- Put in place municipal regulation promoting inclusion by requiring that private developers dedicate at least 25% of their projects to social or affordable housing
Initially called the Montreal Island Citizens’ Union, the party was formed in 2001 when a number of suburban politicians united with the fading Montreal Citizens Movement to support Gerald Tremblay’s candidacy for Mayor. Tremblay has since served as Montreal’s Mayor representing this party, which changed its name in 2007 to simply Union Montreal, and is running in this election for a third mandate. In 2001, the party won 40 of the 73 Council seats, and in 2005 won 47 of the 64 available seats. Accordingly, Union Montreal has been the major party in Montreal municipal politics over the past decade.
Mayoral Candidate:
Gérald Tremblay
Highlights of the party platform relating to transit, the environment and housing
Transit
- Develop a tramway grid and extend the current metro grid. Replace the current metro car fleet to increase the affluence.
- Build a light rail link from downtown Montréal to the Trudeau Airport
- Purchase an additional 200 transit buses by 2011, with a focus on clean technologiesLook towards developing a tramway in the city centre
Environment
- Add 60 km of bike paths per year to reach 800 km of bike paths and extend the BIXI program.
- Innovate to reach a recycling rate of 60%
- Promote carpooling and car-shares
Housing
- Build 5,000 social housing units
Vision Montreal is the oldest of the three major parties. It was founded in 1994 to support the candidacy of Pierre Bourque. The latter would go on to serve as Mayor of Montreal from 1994 to 2001, when he was defeated by Gerald Tremblay. In addition, Vision Montreal had a majority on City Council from 1994 to 2001. Since 2001 it has served in opposition on the Montreal City Council and was lead from 2006 until earlier this year by Benoit Labonte. At the leadership convention in 2009, former Parti Quebecois cabinet Minister Louise Harel was unanimously chosen to be party leader and mayoral candidate in the 2009 election.
Mayoral Candidate:
Louise Harel
Louise Harel Speaks
Highlights of the party platform relating to transit, the environment and housing:
Transit
- Freeze STM rates and peg them to inflation
- Add 400 buses to the fleet
- Support projects such as the U-Pass for students
- Pursue studies on the construction of a tramway and the addition of 4 metro stations: 3 on the blue line towards Anjou and on towards Bois-Franc on the orange line
Environment
- Create “eco-neighbourhoods” in 9 boroughs and increase the budget of existing boroughs
- Limit waste removal to once a week, achieve 80% recycling rate and put a ban on putting meal remains in waste by 2011.
- Goal of attaining an 80% organic waste disposal by 2016
- Aim to improve air quality by prohibiting the burning of wood for heating purposes throughout the city
- Make Ste-Catherine street pedestrian from Bleury to Papineau
Housing
- Build 10,000 social housing units
