Pick a mayor, any mayor
Laurent Blanchard was sworn in as interim mayor of Montreal Tuesday, and seldom has the bar been set so low for a new mayor.
“What our citizens want now is that the city continue to function,” he said as he pitched his candidacy to his fellow councillors earlier in the day.
For Mr. Blanchard, a lowprofile city councillor first elected in 2005, there was no need to outline an economic plan, no expectation of a legacy project.
If he can serve out his term without getting arrested, he will be judged a success.
Mr. Blanchard squeaked out a two-vote victory over his closest rival, Harout Chitilian, in a council vote to choose a replacement for Michael Applebaum. Mr. Applebaum, who won a similar election last November after Gérald Tremblay quit amid controversy, was forced to resign last week after being arrested on 14 corruption-related charges.
Mr. Blanchard, 60, stressed his personal integrity in his pitch for the job. It was a common theme among the five candidates. (In the end there were only three names on the ballot, as two withdrew before the vote).
“Never has my name been tarnished,” Alan de Sousa stressed. Mr. Chitilian promised to bring an end to Montreal’s “bad nightmare” while François Croteau lamented the public cynicism created by Mr. Applebaum’s arrest. Jane Cowell-Poitras acknowledged that Quebec’s anti-corruption police had visited her borough of Lachine but said that her only contact with the provincial police came when they stopped her for speeding.
Talking to reporters after his election, Mr. Blanchard said he is not worried Quebec’s anti-corruption police will target his borough of HochelagaMaisonneuve. “Absolutely not,” he said.
elected under the Vision Montreal banner, he had been sitting as an independent since being named executive committee chairman by Mr. Applebaum in November.
He said he will continue as an independent and signalled his intent to continue a coalition administration until the Nov. 3 municipal election by nominating Josée duplessis of Projet Montréal to head the executive committee.
Projet Montréal leader Richard Bergeron said Mont- realers should be reassured by Mr. Blanchard’s election as interim mayor. “I think we have nothing to fear. Laurent Blanchard is above — really above — all suspicion,” Mr. Bergeron said. “Montrealers have seen too much recently. This time we needed an absolute guarantee, and we have it.”
Mr. Blanchard is the city’s third mayor in the space of eight months. He has said he will not run for the job in November, meaning a fourth person will take office then.
The turmoil comes amid a public inquiry into corruption and collusion in the construction industry, which so far has revealed that the city was overpaying for infrastructure projects while padding the coffers of contractors, mobsters and the former ruling party at city hall.
Mr. Chitilian, who had been council speaker before entering the race for interim mayor, took solace from the fact Montreal was able to move past the crisis of Mr. Applebaum’s arrest without intervention by the province.
“It demonstrates once and for all that the democracy in the Montreal municipal council is healthy,” he said. “It demonstrates again that we don’t need a trusteeship from the Quebec government. We can take care of business on our own.”
declaring Montreal’s democracy healthy is a bit premature. The true test of its health will come on Nov. 3 when Mr. Blanchard’s stint as caretaker mayor ends and the people choose a replacement — one hopes with the bar set much higher.