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Election notebook
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Your weekly dose of the megabrouhaha
by CRAIG SEGAL
Mayor Pierre Bourque accused Gérald Tremblay of neglecting his 91-year-old mother at Sunday's debate on issues facing the elderly: "Friday I went to the home where [Tremblay's] mother lives in Outremont, and she asked me, 'When will my son visit me?'" Bourque earned chuckles from the audience, yet they clucked and booed when Tremblay slammed Bourque for his handling of the squatters. When the debate finally ended, Tremblay clapped for Bourque. But when it was time to clap for Tremblay, the mayor's hands remained at his sides.
Gazette theatre critic Pat Donnelly surprised everyone when she announced last week she is running for Bourque's team in Westmount. She joins Richard McConomy, a lawyer and actor who had a bit part in last year's Isn't She Great, with Bette Midler. "Politics is a lot like acting and a lot different," he says. "You don't have a captive audience. You don't have them sitting." And what is a theatre critic doing in politics anyway? "You don't survive 14 years as a Gazette theatre critic unless you're a pretty good politician," says Donnelly. She cites as one of her reasons for joining the seven-year mayor's team the fact that he donates his $100,000 salary to a youth foundation he created. Tremblay has already said he would not donate his salary because, unlike Bourque, he is not already collecting a hefty pension.
One more thing about Bourque: several Bourque candidates believe the mayor will fulfill his promise to decentralize power to the boroughs when elected. This is the same mayor who emasculated the neighbourhood councils after getting elected in 1994. As the mayor of Westmount Peter Trent says, "I remember meeting Bourque one morning at 7 a.m. after he was elected. He'd gone to Quebec City to try to wipe out the neighbourhood councils and they had said 'No.' Quebec told him he couldn't get rid of them because it's undemocratic. You must understand the way the man operates. He wants sycophants and yes-men." Trent, meanwhile, this week turned down an offer from anti-merger group DémocraCité.
Bourque must realize he can't win in the Plateau, which is dominated by opposition councillors Michel Prescott, leader of the official opposition at city hall (Jeanne-Mance), the wily André Cardinal (Plateau), Mile-End queen Helen Fotopulos, and the well-liked Richard Théorêt (Laurier). Nobody's heard of the Bourque candidates. They are, correspondingly, Vivian Goulder, a lawyer; 26-year-old Nicolas Tétrault; journalist Salwa Tazi; and ex-civil-servant Christine Poulin. Goulder, 34, says she was a little surprised to be running against Prescott, since she expected him to run for mayor. But she's confident. "I do believe he's beatable," she says. "Prescott abstains from important issues if he thinks they can hurt him. I don't think that's correct. You either believe in something or you don't." Goulder promises to scrub the Plateau, keep a healthy mix of businesses and residences, and pay close attention to citizens' concerns. Tétrault has pretty much the same platform, except he is preoccupied with public security--not for himself though. "I must admit, on a personal level I'm not scared," says the former wrestler. "I'm six-foot-one, 215 pounds and so on."
Helen Fotopulos is doing a two-step over a newspaper she buys ads in. After the Étoile du Plateau & Mile End's Tristan Roy wrote an editorial calling for the deportation of Palestinians in the September 14 issue--in which the city councillor bought two large ads--Fotopulos marched in an anti-war demo and wrote a critical letter to the editor. She will continue to buy ads in the paper, though, since "It's the newspaper that goes door to door in our area. My withdrawing from it at this point ain't gonna bring any light to the situation."
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