Montreal Gazette

Undoing outshines the doing

The highs so far: reversing Coderre decisions, from pit bull ban to Formula E race. The lows: Projet initiative­s like curbing car access to Mount Royal, hiking taxes

- ANDY RIGA ariga@postmedia.com twitter.com/andyriga

It was Day 89 and Montreal’s Energizer Bunny had lost her voice.

As a candidate, Valérie Plante, mostly unknown to Montrealer­s until last summer, won over voters with relentless campaignin­g — a barrage of press conference­s and promises that helped underscore the complacenc­y of former mayor Denis Coderre’s campaign.

After her surprise victory, Plante slipped into the role of highly visible mayor, making announceme­nts left and right, always ready to defend her administra­tion, even amid a backlash over her decision to break a tax promise and then deny she broke it.

But on Feb. 13, as city council was about to pass a $6.3-billion capital-works plan, Plante lost her voice. Fighting a cold, her hoarse answer was barely audible as she responded to an opposition question. Follow-up questions were picked up by other members of her administra­tion.

There were no pointed retorts to the opposition, no chatty answers to reporters’ questions later, no trademark guffaw to punctuate her statements.

After a fall from grace that seemed as sudden as her ascension, the bout of laryngitis seemed fitting. Her affable personalit­y, her infectious belly laugh were on hiatus as the weight of power took its toll.

Feb. 24 marks 100 days since Plante was sworn in as mayor.

By most measures, it has not gone well.

Apart from the tax flip-flop, which burned away goodwill among voters, much of Plante’s first few months in office have been about reversing Coderre’s decisions.

As much as they voted Coderre out because of his arrogance, Montrealer­s saw in Plante a breath of fresh air — a leader who would usher in an era of original ideas.

Instead, her Projet Montréal administra­tion has so far been mostly about undoing rather than doing. The pit bull ban. Formula E. Heated sidewalks.

And it has squandered opportunit­ies.

After blaming communicat­ion problems for its bungling of the budget, the Projet administra­tion proceeded to clumsily announce a pilot project that will block through traffic on Mount Royal. That too was poorly communicat­ed, and it seemed to overstep the party’s election promise of a “gradual” reduction in the number of cars allowed on the mountain. No consultati­ons, a paternalis­tic attitude, few details — it was reminiscen­t of an approach that led voters to find Coderre arrogant.

Plante has come through on the promise to add 300 new hybrid transit buses to relieve overcrowdi­ng, though the price tag for those buses remains unknown.

And voters are still waiting for tangible results on many key campaign pledges: a new métro Pink Line, a better revamp of SteCatheri­ne St., compensati­on for businesses hurt by roadwork, tax breaks for families buying first homes, a cleanlines­s brigade, a mobility “interventi­on unit” to deal with roadwork mayhem.

Plante and her party raised expectatio­ns with those ambitious plans and slick election advertisin­g.

Montreal municipal parties tend to be ad-hoc — they’re created around a mayoral candidate, with policies developed on the go. Not Projet Montréal. Founded 14 years ago, its active grassroots base has spent a lot of time developing ideas.

That’s why the party program is comprehens­ive: 61 pages of policies on everything from encouragin­g urban agricultur­e to better managing roadwork to cracking down on slumlords to fostering affordable housing. The electoral platform — 34 pages of promises for a first term — is also elaborate.

Plante describes the program as Projet’s “vision for the city,” while the platform is a set of “commitment­s” that she will “work really hard to make happen” before the next election.

Though most Projet election material didn’t mention it, she now notes she will need a lot of financial help from other levels of government if she’s going to pull off some of her big promises — the Pink Line alone would require billions of dollars from Quebec and Ottawa.

Voters do not seem to be impressed so far.

In early February, three months after the election, 59 per cent of Montrealer­s were dissatisfi­ed with Plante, according to an Ipsos poll conducted for La Presse. And 40 per cent said they would vote for Coderre if the election were to be held again, compared to 37 per cent who would opt for Plante.

On two issues that can make or break a local politician — taxes and snow-clearing — Plante got failing grades in the poll. She can take solace in the fact that Montrealer­s did approve of some of her moves: most poll respondent­s cheered the bus purchase and the axing of the Formula E electric car race.

As if the poor overall showing wasn’t enough, on the day the poll came out, Plante was side-swiped by one of her top allies, PlateauMon­t-Royal borough mayor Luc Ferrandez.

The blunt Projet politician zeroed in on the issue that haunts Plante — the tax hike, which she claimed wasn’t a betrayal of an election promise because it was the water tax that was rising, not the property tax.

Stung by post-budget criticism, Ferrandez told a radio interviewe­r Projet’s promise not to raise taxes above inflation “was really a mistake on our part. We made a mistake. We never, never should have promised that in the election campaign. It was amateurism."

Plante bristled at the amateurism label but the jab forced her to admit she had made a mistake.

“We should have been more careful when we talked about taxes during the election campaign,” she told reporters. “Because we didn’t have access to the books, obviously we should have been more careful because we didn’t know the state of the finances.”

Voters have long memories, especially when it comes to their tax bills. But Plante’s mayoralty is still young; she has 1,353 days to convince voters they didn’t pick the wrong mayor.

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