Gladhanding gaffes costing Tremblay

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by George Maddux

With the recently enlisted support of Michel Prescott, mayoral hopeful Gerald Tremblay has gained more than a political ally, he has gained a much-needed guide to the city he hopes to run. Prescott has promised to campaign alongside Tremblay, a former professor and provincial Industry minister. His stumbles on the stump so far include a press conference he held in front of the Redpath Refinery on March 21 in which he denounced the rundown building as an example of city neglect. Unknown to him, however, was that the graffiti-covered site had been dolled up specifically by a movie production crew to look like a post-nuclear set for a scene in the upcoming Tom Clancy thriller The Sum of All Fears, which wrapped up shooting a month ago. The film industry brings in almost $1-billion annually to the local economy.

Tremblay's other campaign gaffes include an incident in which officials balked at allowing him on the reviewing stand for the St. Patrick's parade. It's also whispered that he was made to feel unwelcome by residents during a slum tour of the Côte-des-Neiges tenements made famous with Mayor Bourque's sleepover from the last electoral campaign.

A poll from July 5 indicated that Mayor Pierre Bourque is in the lead, with 35.3 per cent of decided support, while Gerald Tremblay had 16.6 per cent and Michel Prescott's now-defunct MCM has 8.7 per cent. Tremblay is from Ottawa. :