One possibility is that NDG Mayor Michael Applebaum could also enter the race, although it would be an all-time first for the mayoral sidekick to be running as mayoral candidate.
It would be very weird to get an anglo mayor in Montreal but it's not impossible. Anybody who watched The Wire will recall that Tommy Carcetti got voted in in a threeway split.And it also happened in Lachine a couple of years ago when a Ukrainian gadfly (Mac-something?) won in a three way split a few years back.
As for Bergeron, he won't win because he's seen as the Plateau guy who is in favour of wacky progressive ideas and killing parking spots and raising taxes. Louise Harel won't win because she's a hardcore separatist and of course separatists want to turn Montreal into a giant Quebec City, that's boring. And Denis Coderre is expected to bag the big prize but the folksy Liberal MP who loves to tweet his feelings about hockey scores all night long might find himself get the cold shoulder as the newbie.
Anglos tend to vote in a terribly-disproportionately high levels in city elections and having a bloke as mayor would be pretty chuckleworthy and lead to more interesting times, to be sure. So yeah... can't say I'm a huge fan of Applebaum after he voted in favour of paving over 14,000 feet of green space in the park near my home but yeah maybe as mayor he'll be able to undo that disaster.
Denis Coderre will be the next mayor. That's pretty much assured.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Applebaum can also undo the traffic changes he made , so less cars would pass his Earnscliffe home , but more cars on the suurrounding streets , not to mention the inconvenience. His holier than thou attitude is tough to swallow.
ReplyDeleteApplebaum can hardly speak French and mangles his English. All he knows about public policy he got from page 1 of an old old Liberal Party flyer. he has no sense of conflict of interest, having worked as an active real estate agent for years while on his borough's zoning committee. His greatest ideas was to propose selling ads on park benches because they could raise revenue. Mayors of tiny suburbs have more grey matter than he.
ReplyDeleteUh, yeah sure thing anonymous.. you got somewhere better? You might think mangling language is a major thing but those who pay taxes realize that those with actual experience balancing budgets in a city have value. Voters are tired of blowhard dreamers who don't know numbers, that's my sense of the recent election trends.
ReplyDeleteAs a Westmounter, I have no stake in any of this. That said, however, I would take Applebaum over the other candidates. I agree with the last comment-- there has been a lot of 'lofty' ideas in city politics the last few years with seats being used to preach broad ideals rather than pragmatic solutions to issues facing the city.
ReplyDeleteIt's why Ford won in Toronto. He has no grand goals, he had a consistent debt reduction message focused on services. It's great that Bergeron wants to make the world a greener place; but, city politics may not be the appropriate venue-- especially considering that there are problems with transportation, health, homelessness, the police and massive city debts.
If Applebaum focuses on his pragmatic issues, as he has, I'd support him. If I lived in MTL.