Luc Ferrandez says he regrets calling his party's promise to not raise taxes 'amateurish'

Plateau-Mont-Royal Mayor and executive committee member Luc Ferrandez said he made a mistake when he called one of his own party's campaign promises "amateurish" in a live radio interview Wednesday morning.

Ferrandez told 98.5 FM that in putting out ads promising not to raise taxes and then going back on the decision once in office, his party had made a misstep.

Making that promise so early in the campaign was an amateur move, he said.

He told CBC Wednesday afternoon that he regretted the comment and that it wasn't his intention to take a shot at Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.

"It is not a mistake from the mayor," he said. "It is not what defines our party."

At City Hall, Plante told reporters that she'd met with Ferrandez and they agreed that he misspoke.

"I think he chose his words poorly," she said. "We both agreed it was not the right word to use because it doesn't reflect what happened."

Plante explained that if she and her administration had known the state of the city's books before entering office, they wouldn't have made promises about raising taxes in line with inflation.

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"We should have been more cautious when we spoke about taxes in our campaign," she said.

Speaking about the incident after the executive committee meeting, Plante remained diplomatic, saying there was no bad blood between the two.

"I appreciate how he speaks his mind." 

Plante said it wasn't her style or intention to try and gag her team or reprimand them for speaking out, taking a dig at former mayor Denis Coderre.

"It's important for me that the members of my executive committee have the right to speak. I'm not the type of leader, like maybe the previous one, who wanted to control everything. That is not my type of leadership," she said.