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With niqabs and misconduct allegations dominating news, don’t forget the election

Sex scandals and niqab battles are swamping Quebec headlines, so it’s easy to forget a “small” event coming soon — the election to choose Montreal’s mayor.

The lone French-language debate took place Thursday night and no TV channel bothered to televise it — they probably assumed nothing could compete with Gilbert Rozon-gate.

If you didn’t see it, which you didn’t, here’s your election primer.

The good news is that in this election we have no jailed or under-investigation mayors — just two hard-working candidates with very different images.

Denis Coderre looks like a classic old-fashioned big-city boss. It’s no accident his party is called Équipe Denis Coderre — because his party is all about him.

His rival, Projet Montréal’s Valérie Plante, is from another planet: a charismatic, funky, bike-riding mom who was unknown a few months ago. But she’s run an imaginative, eversmiling campaign, including posters saying she’s “The Right Man For The Job.”

In Thursday’s debate, Plante talked parks, affordable housing and reduced métro fares, while Coderre often sounded bureaucratic — tossing out figures and a stream of acronyms like SRB and PME that sometimes left me AWOL.

While she was a dynamo, constantly laughing, the mayor didn’t smile once. But Coderre hasn’t had much cause to smile since the campaign started.

This election should have been a slam-dunk for Coderre, who had a well-earned 70 per cent approval rating a little more than a year ago. He had successfully dragged our city out of the pit it had been in, dug by a string of mayors who were either A) incompetent, B) corrupt, C) criminals or D) all of the above.

Long-vanished construction cranes had returned to the city, our skyline was changing, tourism booming and unemployment falling to what’s now a record low. We’d launched a Festival of Construction we’d needed for decades — though it’s created a cone-y island we all want to escape.

But Coderre has also shown an increasingly autocratic side — from his bulldog-like stubbornness about banning pit bulls, to his obsession with holding a costly Formula E electric car race.

His 375th anniversary bash was supposed to raise city spirits, but instead it dragged down Coderre’s popularity, with silly projects like granite tree stumps on Mount Royal, and a lit-up Jacques Cartier Bridge few can see but suburbanites in the South Shore.

Meanwhile, Projet Montréal has softened its old anti-car, antibusiness Plateau image. Plante has put a literal new face on the party branding it green, familyfriendly and user-friendly. In the latest poll in September, she was only five points behind Coderre.

In truth, we barely know Plante, or if her party’s really changed. As the host of the popular TV show “Tout le monde en parle” asked Plante ironically last week, during a mini-mayor’s debate:

“If you win, will Montreal become a giant Plateau-Mont-Royal with streets that change direction, shops closing and snow removal done every Leap Year?”

Naturally, Plante said no — every district has its own personality — but who knows? If one party is too autocratic, the other may still be too doctrinaire.

Both candidates promise to improve snow removal and other services. Only Coderre would do it by centralizing decisions at City Hall — and Plante by de-centralizing them to the boroughs.

Coderre’s big dream is to bring back the Expos, and he’s open to using tax money to do it, while Plante shows no enthusiasm.

Plante’s big dream is the Pink Line — a new 27-kilometre métro line from Montreal North to downtown and Lachine. I love the concept, but the price seems too expensive — and too cheap.

Plante says it will cost $6 billion — about $220 million per kilometre. But a much smaller extension of the long-promised Blue Line will cost more than $540 million a kilometre — and even that’s taken decades to get financed and still isn’t underway.

I’m not sure it ever will be, so we may as well dream about new lines. My own include a fast train to the airport and West Island. Also an ethnic food line straight from Chinatown to Little Italy — and a Jewish food line from Snowdon Deli to Schwartz’s.

Finally, a Josh line from my house to my tennis club on Côtede-Liesse Rd.

Ultimately, if you like where Montreal’s at, Coderre is your guy — continuing more probusiness, car-friendly, prodevelopment government, run by a competent but unpredictable boss.

The risk: is he a Jean Drapeau in the making, whose 375th projects are a precursor to a big Expos’ bill — or even another Expo?

If you prefer an alternative bike-loving, green city with neighbourhood power, then Plante is your choice — but a plunge into the unknown. The risk: is Projet the smiling, open face of Plante, or the hidebound party of the past, with little sympathy for cars and developers?

The English debate is on Monday night, so take a break from Weinstein, Rozon and Trump — and give a few minutes to your city’s future. Whether you vote or not, our next mayor will be your mayor.