‘Many challenges’ lie ahead as Wong makes city council history
First woman to become speaker vows to make democracy ‘truly accessible’
Cathy Wong was named the new council speaker for Montreal Friday, becoming the first woman to ever hold the post, as well as the first member of an opposition party to be selected.
She will be responsible for leading city council meetings, acting as a neutral arbiter on objections and points of order and keeping Montreal’s 65 councillors, borough mayors and the mayor in line. Her role also calls for her to foster citizen participation in municipal life, and to ensure that city hall can be a home of citizenship for all of Montreal’s residents.
The fact that she is the first woman to be selected shows she has her work cut out for her, Wong said at the official announcement Friday at city hall, accompanied by Mayor Valérie Plante.
“I really think there are many challenges to make sure these goals can be accessible and inclusive for all Montrealers, and in particular for women, the young, for cultural communities and new arrivals, for Indigenous people,” she said.
“Being the first woman to occupy this post in 2017 shows all the work that remains to be done to ensure that our municipal democracy can be truly accessible.”
Wong, 30, is a member of the Équipe Denis Coderre party, which finished second to Projet Montréal in the municipal elections of early November.
She had been courted by Projet Montréal twice previously, without success, once to join the party prior to the elections, and then to sit on the executive committee, the city’s top decision-making body.
Projet Montréal had stipulated that opposition members who obtain posts on the executive must either leave their party and sit as independent councillors, or stop attending the caucus meetings of their party, in order to maintain the confidentiality of the executive committee.
Équipe Denis Coderre party leader Lionel Perez said seven members of his party were approached by Projet Montréal to join the executive, but all refused with the exception of Verdun borough Mayor Jean-François Parenteau, who was given responsibility for citizen services and the environment, and now sits as an independent councillor.
Former mayor Denis Coderre had four members of opposition parties on the executive committee during his tenure. They were not excluded from their party caucus meetings.
Plante said the third attempt to bring Wong into the fold proved to be the charm because the position of speaker worked for both of them.
Wong worked previously as the youth development officer for the YMCAs of Quebec, and was the youngest president in the history of the Conseil des Montréalaises, a city body that deals with women’s issues, as well as the president of the Conseil des jeunes, the city’s youth council. As speaker, she will be responsible for managing both advisory bodies. As is customary for council speakers, Wong will have to refrain from attending her party’s caucus meetings to maintain her semblance of neutrality, and will vote in council only in the event of a tie.
Montreal’s executive committee and city council have been criticized for their lack of visible minorities. The committee has also been criticized for a lack of opposition members, given Plante’s promises of greater inclusiveness. Plante said Friday that while her choice of Wong did respond to those issues, her main concern was to find someone who had proven competency for the role, as well as a woman, to set an example in the same way Montrealers did by electing a female mayor.
Wong will replace Frantz Benjamin, an Équipe Denis Coderre member who filled the position during the last mandate, and was the first black city councillor to become speaker.
Wong praised Benjamin’s work as speaker and attempts to introduce the world of municipal democracy to more Montrealers.
“He set a high bar,” she said.
Being the first woman to occupy this post in 2017 shows all the work that remains to be done.