Montreal's civic election leaves mess for next mayor

A most memorable slogan for Montreal's mayoral race was splashed across the cover of this week's Maclean's magazine: "Montreal is a corrupt, crumbling, Mob-ridden disgrace."

That headline brutally summed up one of the most bizarre municipal elections in memory, which featured a disheartening drip of tales about Mafia influence in politics, inflated construction contracts and widespread corruption.

Quebec voters heading to the polls on Sunday might not be aware of the candidates' promises on infrastructure or public transit. But the steady slew of sleaze certainly got their attention.

Montreal's newspapers this week reflected the municipal campaign's tone: One reported on a police investigation into a 330-metre stretch of road that cost almost $900,000, and another story about a fearful construction boss said he was threatened by rivals for having dared to bid for a municipal contract.

Mayoral race blighted

Montrealers are now left with a choice of three mayoral candidates.

There's the pro-Canada mayor, Gérald Tremblay, with an administration drowning in corruption scandals, who now says he fears for his family's safety because of the controversy.

His separatist challenger, Louise Harel, has promised to take a broom to city hall, but her own party has been swept up in the same scandal. She also has a handicap with English-speaking voters, given her past musings about the stench of anglo-British colonialism.

Then there's the third-place candidate, Richard Bergeron, who floated conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings and declared that smoking was good for his health.

Louise O'Sullivan, a former Montreal executive committee member and federal Conservative candidate, is also running for the mayor's office. 

Montreal's most widely read broadsheet newspaper responded this week with an editorial endorsement of its own preferred candidate: nobody.

Under the headline "Leader Wanted," La Presse wrote that the campaign was one of the most depressing and revealing in recent history.

"Faced with the weaknesses demonstrated by each of the mayoral candidates, La Presse is not able to support one or the other," wrote André Pratte, the paper's lead editorialist. "Montrealers will have to choose according to their conscience."

Backroom deals at city hall exposed 

The torrent of scandal began with a steady trickle. Earlier this year, there were whispers about cost overruns and irregularities in a $355-million water-meter contract – the biggest deal ever handed out by the city.

Then the allegations and revelations never stopped coming, and they continued flowing even after the city was forced to cancel the contract.

The scandal became a national story around the time the mayor's most persistent long-time critic — the No. 2 man in the city's opposition party, Benoît Labonté — was forced to resign himself.

Labonté dropped out after admitting he took money from a businessman implicated in the water-meter row. And, on his way out the door, he spewed out an avalanche of allegations about influence-peddling and dubious fundraising practices that he claimed extended to all levels of politics in Quebec. His opponents have either denied or questioned the accuracy of his comments.

Add to that a bombshell report of extensive Mob influence in road repair that prompted numerous calls for a public inquiry and triggered a $26.8-million provincial police investigation.

One report alleged that the Mob controlled 80 per cent of contracts doled out by the city of Montreal, and that construction companies gave the Cosa Nostra a slice of the action for every deal.

That shock investigative piece by Radio-Canada also alleged that the companies engaged in collusion practices that drove up the price of projects 35 per cent, and that they threatened any competitor who refused to play along.

Mayor's race a single-issue campaign

Try as they did to steer the conversation back to issues affecting the city, the main candidates faced an electorate both infuriated and titillated by the headlines. The single-issue campaign did produce some memorable sound bites.

"I've come to pass the broom – but I will need a vacuum instead," said challenger Harel, a Parti Québécois firebrand and ardent sovereigntist who is best known as the architect of unpopular municipal mergers.

Harel, at the helm of Vision Montréal since June, is trying to become the city's first-ever female mayor. She campaigned on a plan to centralize services like garbage pickup and snow removal, freeze taxes and transit fares, and make a bid for the city to host Expo 2020.

But Labonté's revelations, given that he was once her right-hand man, have dogged her since his departure. She now says he deceived her.

The federalist mayor, Tremblay, is a former Liberal provincial cabinet minister, now attempting to re-brand himself as the anti-corruption champion in his bid for a third term in office. Tremblay told Le Devoir newspaper that he feared for his family's safety.

Tremblay, 67, said he's not afraid of standing up to corruption and rooting out any problems. "I'm determined to continue what I'm doing and clean up what's happening," he said in an interview.

The incumbent mayor said he's doing the best he can to turn the discussion toward issues like public transit, improving city services and continuing to attract investment.

"Integrity and ethical conduct are important but you can't base a campaign only on that," Tremblay said. "There are other issues that concern citizens."

Added to the mix as a wild card is the quirky, scrappy Bergeron, leader of third-place Projet Montréal party.

Bergeron told La Presse recently that he smokes to stay healthy because, he said, it reduces his lung capacity and keeps him from injuring himself when he runs marathons too fast.

Bergeron, a 54-year-old convert to Islam, said he's proud that his party's entire campaign cost only $200,000 where others have spent up to 10 times as much.

Projet Montréal has a wide-ranging, detailed platform that includes everything from heavy investment in public transit to subsidizing reusable diapers to the possibility of a bipartisan municipal executive body.

He's aligned himself with retired judge John Gomery, who headed the federal sponsorship scandal inquiry, and Jacques Duchesneau, a former Montreal police chief.

Gomery said it's time for another inquiry — although such calls have faced resistance from the provincial and federal governments.