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The politics of sisterhood >> High-profile candidates battle for the downtown seat at city hall by DOMINIQUE RITTER
A lot of political clout is on the line in this flagship district, which encompasses the downtown hub--including two universities, several movie complexes and hundreds of shops and restaurants. Each of the four major parties is running a high-profile candidate here; the choices on the ballot include a former Mulroney cabinet minister, a business bigwig, a well-connected Quebec Liberal and one of the youngest candidates ever to run in a municipal election. The competition is stiff: the winning councillor in Peter-McGill is usually elected with about 1,500 votes, and the margin of victory is often between two hundred to three hundred ballots. And, as in previous years, the deciding factor may just be the word of God. Literally. Doré's business buddy Jean Lamarre, who is the Peter-McGill candidate for Jean Doré's Team Montreal, is the son of Jacques Lamarre, CEO of engineering mega-firm SNC-Lavalin--where Doré himself has worked as a consultant since being turfed out of the mayor's chair in 1994. Should Lamarre win the vote in Peter-McGill, he told the Mirror, he will be nominated chair of the city's executive committee. That would place the smooth operator at the helm of the city administration. One of Lamarre's more interesting proposals is to create a committee for the homeless, whose task would be to solicit funds from Quebec City. He is hoping that the Gray Nuns of the Peter-McGill district will participate in his plan, which would also include local business people and residents. Gerry Weiner, the candidate for Pierre Bourque's Vision Montreal, seems less concerned about the homeless getting enough to eat and more concerned about who he has eaten with. A former Conservative MP, former cabinet minister, former chair of Alliance Quebec and former president of the Equality Party, Weiner, who seems to have a penchant for platitudes, says his experience is one of his fortés--especially when dealing with the provincial and federal governments. "I've eaten with both of them," he says of Lucien Bouchard and Jean Chrétien. But Weiner offered little in the way of concrete plans for the district. Any specific projects to improve social welfare in a district overburdened with homeless people? "The best social program is a job," replied Weiner in his singsong voice. One of Weiner's opponents seems to agree with him on that point. Louise Boyne, a well-connected provincial Liberal taking a stab at municipal politics with Jacques Duchesneau's New Montreal party, says she is bent on boosting job creation. "I'm for employment. I want the homeless to be earning money so they can spend money," says Boyne. Student vote, sister vote What of the universities and the students living in the Concordia and McGill ghettos? Although Boyne says she wants the district to become more "conducive" to students, she--like Lamarre and Weiner--doesn't seem terribly concerned about whether or not the students show up at the ballot box on election day. As it happens, the one candidate making a case for the student vote is a student himself. Shawn Rosengarten is studying political science at Concordia University and is the Montreal Citizens Movement's candidate in Peter-McGill. According to figures provided by the city of Montreal, 38 per cent of the district's residents are between the ages of 20 and 24. Unfortunately, however, only about a quarter of eligible voters in that group actually bother to cast a ballot. Rosengarten, an idealistic 21-year-old, is trying to mobilize the youth vote--he's actually been working on this campaign for almost a year. Despite Rosengarten's best efforts, however, the universities may take a back seat to the nunnery: the Mother House, located on Ste-Catherine between Guy and St-Mathieu, is home to almost 250 Gray Nuns. Although the nuns themselves emphasize their individuality, no politician can resist the temptation of 250 like-minded voters, who share the same values, all under one roof. The Gray Nuns even have their place in Nick Auf der Maur lore: in the 1994 election, Nick lost to Georgine Coutu of Vision Montreal by 150 votes--and, so the story goes, it was the Gray Nuns who did him in, throwing their support behind Coutu. In the last few weeks, mayoral hopefuls Doré and Duchesneau have both stopped by the Mother House for informal "chats" with the nuns, and Lamarre paid them a visit last Friday. In a district that has a history of hinging on the habit vote, candidates may be best served by courting the sisters and saying their prayers.
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For most Montrealers, the municipal election campaigns in their districts may seem like small potatoes. But for the people living in the downtown district of Peter-McGill, the 1998 civic election gives them the chance to do some serious power-broking.