Demerged mayors throw support behind ADQ

A group of mayorsin Montreal's west end– traditionally an anglophone stronghold– are vowing to support l'Action Démocratique du Québec in the next provincial election.

At least four mayors representing demerged suburbs in the west end promise to break a regionaltradition of voting Liberal, to punish the ruling party forthe way it handledmunicipal demergers.

A spokesman with the ADQ confirmed the party's leader, Mario Dumont, had been in contact with demerged mayors in the group.

Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Mayor Bill Tierney told CBC he is determined to make the Liberals pay a political price for how they reconstituted municipal councils and redistributed voting power after the demerger referendums in 2004.

In Montreal, the "agglomeration council" oversees shared municipal services, but demerged mayors hold a minority of votes, and their absence from meetings does not affect quorum.

"We're deeply, deeply frustrated with our Liberal MNAs and with the Liberal government. Frankly, it's taxation without representation, and we're getting nowhere with the Liberals," Tierney said Friday.

Other mayors include Maria Tutino, from Baie d'Urfé, Campbell Stewart in Montreal West and George McLeish from Senneville.

Demerged suburb mayors have boycotted the agglomeration council meetings since fall 2006 to protest the council's makeup, and have demanded the province's municipal affairs minister review the municipal structure.