Montgomery poised to upset incumbent Copeman
In a startling upset, Projet Montréal candidate Sue Montgomery defeated incumbent borough mayor Russell Copeman in Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Sunday night, pledging immediately to get to work on the toughest files in the city’s west-end districts.
“Oh my God, I am thrilled,” Montgomery said in a brief phone interview. “I am so happy to represent Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Damede-Grâce, where I’ve lived for 20 years. My first priority is to meet with the borough’s bureaucrats to go over all of the important files.”
Projet Montréal also captured three of the borough’s five council seats, reflecting a city-wide trend as voters sought change en masse over the Coderre administration.
Copeman, a former Liberal member of the National Assembly who was elected borough mayor in 2013, spoke to Montgomery at 10:45 p.m. to concede.
“It was a great campaign and I wish you the best,” Copeman told Montgomery, talking into a reporter’s smartphone. “We’ll talk soon about making the transition.”
Copeman told glum-looking supporters he accepted the result “with grace and humility,” thanking all his volunteers.
Copeman campaigned on a record of repaving 40 per cent of the borough’s streets — an investment of $75 million. He emphasized his lengthy resumé, suggesting that borough mayor should not be the job for a neophyte, a veiled reference aimed at Montgomery.
However, Montgomery, a former Montreal Gazette reporter, accused Copeman of being a “career politician” who failed to foresee the problems involving access to the superhospital of the McGill University Health Centre that opened in 2015, as well as the congestion caused by rebuilding the Turcot Interchange.
Montgomery campaigned to make the borough’s streets safer, to repair dilapidated low-income housing in Côte-des-Neiges and to add more hybrid buses to some routes. She also vowed to expand the Elmhurst Ave. bus terminal so it could accept accordion buses.
Heading into Monday’s vote, 22 candidates competed for six seats, including the borough mayor’s.
Among other highlights, Snowdon councillor Marvin Rotrand, leader of the opposition Coalition Montréal, was re-elected to a 10th straight mandate. Rotrand is the city’s longest-serving councillor.
Lionel Perez, the incumbent councillor for Darlington district, was re-elected, making him the sole winner under the Coderre banner in the borough.
Also of note was the distant thirdplace showing in Loyola of councillor Jeremy Searle, whose last term was marked by erratic behaviour during borough meetings, when he appeared to be drunk, and for controversial remarks that were viewed by many to be anti- Semitic. Projet Montréal newcomer Christian Arseneault won in Loyola, while Projet incumbents Magda Popeanu and Peter McQueen were easily re-elected in Côte–des–Neiges and Notre–Dame–de–Grâce, respectively.
The political landscape of Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, the city’s most populous borough by far, shifted considerably in the past decade.
In 2013, Copeman was elected borough mayor as a Coalition Montréal candidate, along with Rotrand. But Copeman — who sat on the city’s executive committee throughout his term — switched to Équipe Denis Coderre last year. Meanwhile, Projet Montréal made inroads in the borough in 2013 with Popeanu’s election in Côte-des-Neiges, along with the re-election of Peter McQueen in N.D.G.
In the 2009 vote, four of five council seats in Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, in addition to the borough mayor’s chair, went to members of the nowdefunct Union Montreal party. But the political map changed after Union Montreal disbanded amid corruption allegations, and borough Mayor Michael Applebaum was arrested on charges of graft and found guilty in January.