Montreal mayor headed to new term

MONTREAL— Mayor Gérald Tremblay appeared headed for re- election yesterday with early results giving him a commanding lead over challenger Pierre Bourque. With more than one-half of polls reporting, Tremblay, who was first elected in 2001, had a lead of nearly 20 percentage points over Bourque, who served as Montreal mayor between 1994 and 2001.

Richard Bergeron trailed far behind in third place.

Voters went to the polls in 800 other municipalities across Quebec, marking the first time local elections were held in as many communities on the same day.

In Quebec City, Andrée Boucher was poised to defeat Claude Larose and former provincial cabinet minister Marc Bellemare. And in Laval, the province’s second- largest city, incumbent Gilles Vaillancourt romped to a fifth consecutive mandate. The Montreal campaign featured few surprises and little to excite voters. Both the live debates between Bourque and Tremblay — one in English, the other in French — descended into little more than petty shouting matches. The election was largely seen as a test for Tremblay, a former provincial cabinet minister who benefited heavily during the previous election in 2001 from votes cast in protest against the forced mergers of local municipalities.

Fifteen of the municipalities, most of them in the west of the island, recently voted to deamalgamate and regain their independence.