POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS
Holness ponders run for mayor
Montréal en Action forced a public dialogue and concrete action on systemic racism here in Quebec. ... That is something to be proud of.
As 2020 comes to a close, the Montreal Gazette looks at people who will make an impact in the year ahead. T'cha Dunlevy talks to them about what's on their mind in these challenging times.
Balarama Holness is not ruling out a run for mayor.
If he weren't in bar school from January through June, the Mcgill law graduate, community activist and former Montreal Alouettes football player says he would be making “an important announcement” in the first week of January.
Instead it will be July, and the precise nature of the announcement remains to be determined.
“I will be participating in the next municipal election,” Holness confirmed to the Montreal Gazette recently. “All options remain on the table in regards to running for mayor of Montreal, borough councillor or city councillor.”
Holness ran unsuccessfully as a Projet Montréal candidate for mayor of Montreal North in 2017, but much has changed since then.
His organization Montréal en Action collected more than 22,000 signatures to force the city to hold public consultations on systemic racism, a 15-month process that involved the input of 7,000 Montrealers and led to a 252-page report of 38 recommendations, made public on June 15 (and submitted to Mayor Valérie Plante on June 3).
Several other “major things” happened in June, according to Holness: Plante officially recognized the existence of systemic discrimination, announcing she would appoint a Commissioner to Counter Racism and Discrimination by October (the commissioner has yet to be named); and the provincial government implemented a group to fight racism and discrimination, led by Junior Health Minister Lionel Carmant and International Affairs Minister Nadine Girault.
On June 18, Plante appointed Cathy Wong, the speaker of city council, to Montreal's executive committee as the person responsible for diversity, inclusion in the workplace, the French language and the fight against racism and discrimination.
Holness believes his group deserves at least some of the credit for these changes.
“Montréal en Action forced a public dialogue and concrete action on systemic racism here in Quebec,” he said. “We changed the organizational structure of Montreal. ... That's something to be proud of.”
Holness was profiled in The New York Times in July, the headline claiming he “wants to be the `Canadian Obama.'”
Federal politics may well be in his future, Holness acknowledged, but the next year will be all about passing his bar and getting a foothold in municipal politics.
“As a hopeful lawyer, I'm not excluding the option to practise strategic litigation,” he said. “But what differentiates me from many politicians is I'm not there for votes by any means necessary.
“I'm there to advance a participatory democracy of the people, based on policy to represent people and their interests. My goal is to advance equitable policy; votes come thereof.”