Lessons learned

Published by Karim | Filed under Uncategorized

Well, it has been a while since my last blog post. I have had more than 3 weeks to think about the election, the outcome and what I could have done differently. And before I begin, rest assured…this is not going to be a “sour grapes” rant about why I didn’t win and why I should have.

I have come to realize that election results can rarely (if ever) be explained by logic or be based on tangible facts. Rather, they reflect the mood, sentiment, emotions and feelings of the electors. At first, we may think that one outcome is inevitable or nearly guaranteed, only to find the exact opposite has occurred.

Mr. Tremblay was (and still is) up to his eyeballs in scandals, questionable hiring and firing practices, proof of lousy governance and judgment, terrible publicity (locally, nationally, and internationally) and a general sense that he was failing as our City’s Mayor. So why was he elected to a third term (albeit by a slim margin)? I believe that he won because enough people were not prepared to have a sovereignist like Mme Harel as Mayor and too frightened to elect Mr. Bergeron. I am not sure why they were frightened by Mr. Bergeron, but as an interesting side note: Projet Montréal announced its first decision today; no snow removal on week-ends in the Plateau and Ahuntsic-Cartierville…hmmm, let’s see how that works out….but I digress.

Therefore, I don’t think that Mr. Tremblay won; I propose that the others lost. He only garnered 159 020 votes to Harel’s 137 301 and Bergeron’s 106 768; or as I like to put it, Tremblay had the support of 14.45% of eligible voters, compared to 12.48% and 9.70% for Harel and Bergeron respectively – not exactly awe inspiring!

Another interesting fact is that although Mme Harel beat Mr. Tremblay by over 800 votes in Ville-Marie, he is still this Borough’s Mayor. How can that be, you ask? Well…the provisions contained in Bill 22 give the Mayor of Montreal total control of Ville-Marie. In other words, the Mayor does not need a single one of his/her candidates to be elected in any of the 3 districts for him/her to maintain control of this Borough! The Mayor named Jocelyn-Ann Campbell, City Councillor from the Saint-Sulpice district in Ahuntsic Cartierville, and Richard Deschamps, City Councillor from the Sault-Saint-Louis district in Lasalle and Member of the Executive Committee, to sit on Ville-Marie Borough Council and to ensure his will.

The Mayor now has a fabricated majority and doesn’t really need any of the 3 democratically-elected officials’ support for any of his motions to be passed. So where does that leave his only democratically- elected ally, Mr. Sammy Focillo (you know, the one who beat me in Peter-McGill :)? Does the Mayor really need his support? No. What if Sammy disagrees with the Mayor on a given issue…will he be “allowed” to voice his dissent? Not likely. The other 2 democratically-elected officials (Mr. Mainville and Mr. Robillard) represent the opposition and while they have no direct power to get anything done politically, they do however, have the freedom to speak their minds, raise issues, whistle-blow and truly represent their constituents in Ste-Marie and St-Jacques.

Only time will tell if this new, ridiculous structure will be effective. I hope that this story ends like most elections…anticipate one (disastrous) outcome, only to find the exact opposite has occurred.

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