Que. mayoral candidates have the same name

The next mayor of Les Eboulements, Que. will definitely be Pierre Tremblay, but voters will have to decide which one.

That’s because both the candidates running to be mayor of the municipality 100 kilometres northeast of Quebec City have the same name.

While the two Tremblays share a moniker, they say their visions for the area are very different.

One of the candidates is the incumbent mayor, who says the 1,330-person municipality on the banks of the St-Lawrence could realize its full potential through further development.

“I feel there are a lot of possibilities at the touristic level, at the agricultural level,” he said in a phone interview.

“We should try to develop the advantages we have here, especially tourism.”

The other Tremblay, who is a city councillor, thinks the town’s development should proceed more slowly.

He’s concerned that people from out of town buying vacation homes are pushing up the value of land, and wants to protect local farmers from the bigger tax bills they could face as a result.

“I’ve lived here all my life, I’m a person who communicates a lot with others,” he said in an interview.

The men, who are both in their 60s, say they’re not related.

Tremblay, however, is Quebec’s most popular surname, accounting for over one per cent of the population in 2006.