Christian Arseneault

NewsPolitics

Usually when writing these election breakdowns, I always have to search for the silver lining. Not this time.  I’m very proud of Montreal.

First, we have elected a woman as Mayor for the first time in 375 years. And an extremely progressive woman, too.  Valérie Plante, a one-term City Counselor who rose to become the leader of Projet Montréal and in just a few months has unseated career politician, former federal cabinet minister and incumbent Mayor Denis Coderre who has now quit municipal politics after just four years in it.

This is a tectonic shift in Montreal politics which will have repercussions in both the provincial and federal political arenas. No surpise that Plante pretty much put Quebec City and Ottawa on notice, in the most polite way possible, during her victory speech.

As a whole, it was one of the most spontaneous, upbeat, fun and positive bits of political discourse I have ever witnessed. It was also a serious promise to focus on Montreal and bring everyone together to do it.

Definitely worth watching:

While Mayor of Montreal is a very powerful position in and of itself, a majority on City Council makes it that much easier for the winner to hit the ground running. Otherwise, they would need to form coalitions with independent councilors and those from other parties.

Plante would have been able to pull off the latter rather easily, given that pretty much everyone not running on Coderre’s team endorsed her for Mayor. However, that won’t be necessary, as Projet Montréal won 34 of the 65 seats available, giving her a majority.

Thanks to that, she has already started putting together her Executive Committee with Sud Ouest Borough Mayor Benoit Dorais as its President and has already started talking to Quebec officials and is planning to talk to Ottawa about getting more buses on the road and potential funding for the Pink line. It looks like things will move fast, which is great news for transit users, pet owners, cyclists, people who dislike wasteful spending but are fond of transparency and, arguably, all Montrealers.

Huge Borough Gains for Projet Montréal

Projet is also now quite strong in borough governments. Ten borough mayors belong to the party, eleven if you count Ville Marie (Downtown and Old Montreal), as the Mayor of Montreal also leads that central Borough Council.

As a Ville Marie resident, I found that particular setup annoying when Coderre, who was not our voters’ choice for Mayor (he finished third among Ville Marie voters in 2013), wielded power over the council made up entirely of the opposition. This time, Ville Marie voters chose Plante first, just like the city, so who we voted for is who’s in charge at both the city and borough level, a very welcome change.

Projet also holds the majority on the Ville Marie Borough Council with Plante’s co-candidate Sophie Mauzerolle retaining Sainte-Marie by a healthy margin and Robert Beaudry winning in St-Jacques over the three time Projet mayoral candidate who left the party he co-founded to run with Coderre. Definitely one for the Bad Career Moves Hall of Fame.

Voters in Peter McGill, my district, elected Cathy Wong, the lone Équipe Denis Coderre (probably gonna have to change the party name now) councilor in Ville Marie. While I was hoping for a clean sweep of the borough with Projet’s Jabiz Sharifan, I’m glad that at least Steve Shanahan, who abused his municipal office to run federally for Harper, lost.

Projet maintained complete control of the Plateau, Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie and Sud Ouest. It wasn’t even close in most of those races. The party also swept places like Lachine and L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève where they had no representation previously and made significant gains in boroughs like Outremont.

Perhaps the most significant local increase happened in the city’s most populous borough, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. It’s also the part of town hardest hit by Montreal’s traffic woes.

Former Gazette journalist Sue Montgomery unseated former provincial MNA and incumbent Borough Mayor Russell Copeman, who would have been President of the Executive Committee had both he and Coderre won. Peter McQueen won a third consecutive mandate in NDG by one of the largest margins of victory in the city and Magda Popeanu was re-elected to a second term in Côte-des-Neiges.

Voters in Loyola elected Projet’s Christian Arseneault, giving the party three of the borough’s five council seats. He beat out Coderre candidate Gabriel Retta with incumbent independent councilor Jeremy Searle finishing third. I guess calling constituents at 4am to argue with them and showing up at council meetings (allegedly) drunk will cause you to drop in votes.

Former Interim Mayor of the borough Lionel Perez was re-elected in Darlington, making him the only member of Coderre’s team on the Borough Council. Marvin Rotrand, the leader and only elected candidate for Coalition Montreal held on in Snowdon. With 35 years in office, it would take quite a bit to unseat him, though he only beat Projet’s Irina Maria Grecu by 576 votes. He also came out in support of Plante for Mayor during the campaign and just announced that this term will be his last.

It’s clear which party will be running the show in this major borough for the next four years.

The Changing Face of Montreal Politics

With political establishment heavyweights like Copeman and now-former Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension Borough Mayor Anie Samson losing to political newcomers (though ones who have been very involved in their communities), the face of politics in Montreal is changing. Business-as-usual is now in the minority at City Hall.

The Old Boys Club mentality has been show the door both figuratively and literally. There are now more women in positions of power in the city than men. Another first for Montreal.

The new look also fortunately comes with a new, progressive attitude. Plante and Projet won because Montrealers from all over the city and from all walks of life rejected the bread and circuses to hide inaction approach that has guided our development for decades.

We’re on a path of ambitious, though realistic infrastructure development. One of sustainable and fair mobility and a locally-focused attitude. It’s a great time to be a Montrealer.

NewsPolitics

I sat down recently with Christian Arseneault, Projet Montréal city councillor candidate for the Loyola district of Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace.

Describe yourself, your district and your attachment to the district.

Wow, where to begin? Among others, I was born and raised in the Loyola district, also known as Western NDG. I went to Loyola High School and continue to live in the district, even though I no longer live at home. Western NDG is my home and I’m pretty happy there. It’s a nice place to live. As to my experience, I’m a recent graduate of Honours Poli Sci (McGill) and have previously worked on Kathleen Weil’s campaign during last year’s provincial election.

How would you describe your district to someone who knows nothing of our city, or NDG for that matter?

It’s comfortably close to everything you need while retaining the all that makes Western NDG an ideal place to live, namely that it’s tranquil, relaxing, a good place to raise your family. It’s suburban without being in the suburbs. Furthermore, it, much like the borough and the city as a whole, is very multi-cultural. NDG is about people from all over coming together and living in peace. We have no strife here, no linguistic debates. That’s all so alien to how people actually live here.

Unfortunately, despite all the good people and the good lives they live, we’re also ground zero for corruption.

How’s that?

Michael Applebaum created something of a monster in NDG, as we’re becoming increasingly aware. It’s not just those god-awful condominiums in Saint-Raymond, there are hints and allegations something’s crooked with the new NDG sports centre too. As an example, though it was originally supposed to be designed for international swimming competitions, for some reason the building was completed shorter than what was originally intended and now cannot be used for such purposes.

Little things that snowball into one big mess. This is Applebaum’s legacy to Montreal and there’s nothing I’d like more than to change this; I’m tired of our elected officials cutting corners and profiting off of half-assing it.

Montreal_West_-_AMT_Train_Station
The Montreal West Train Station, half of which is in the Loyola District of Western NDG

If elected, what would you do for your district?

There are two ‘big’ pet-projects I have for my district. First would be to improve the area around the Montreal West train station, which is actually half in NDG. That area is called ‘Westhaven’ but it’s anything but.

In fact, after speaking with the people who live there, it’s becoming apparent to me that this is one of the most casually ignored parts of the city. It’s run-down and poor and could use some attention. It’s unfortunate just how much of a barrier a train line can actually be and so for those on the wrong side it’s as if they didn’t even exist for scores of local politicians who have come and gone throughout the years.

I think we need to fix the major congestion problems around the station as part of a broader initiative to revitalize the area. We should also extend Bixi service out there and further extend the bike path network. It has the potential to be a transit hub, given that two bus lines originate from the station and it’s so close to Loyola campus.

My second plan would be to stimulate a ‘revitalization’ of a stretch of Somerled between Grand and Walkley and try to drive the creation of a ‘Somerled Village’ modeled on the popular Monkland Village but more affordable, less corporate. I think local political leaders need to help steer development and this area could use some extra attention. We definitely need new poles of attraction for local businesses.

What will NDG be like after four years of Projet Montréal governance, assuming your party were to sweep CDN-NDG?

It will be a safer borough to live in, especially for pedestrians and cyclists. We’d definitely pursue some road and intersection redesigns, not to mention installing protected bike paths.

See, what people really need to understand is that improving our streets isn’t a zero-sum game. It’s not a bike path in lieu of cars, it’s not reserved bus lanes in lieu of cars. Increasing access to bike lanes and improving public transit makes those alternatives work better and this in turn gets people to leave their cars at home.

Fewer cars on the streets mean less congestion, and guess what, as a motorist who loves driving around our city, this is good for everyone. Unless we’ve forgotten, driving is a real pain if all you’re doing is slowly crawling along the street.

I also want NDG to pioneer openness and transparency in its affairs, which shouldn’t be too hard given that Michale Applebaum was one of the least transparent, most paranoid borough mayors we ever had the misfortune of having run our affairs. We want televised council meetings and want all pertinent city information put online, well in advance of scheduled deadlines and/or meetings – it’s vitally important the people have access to all the information we’d use on a day to day basis.

That prior administrations would have the gall to tell the people they wouldn’t understand what it means and thus can’t see it is very disturbing. I can guarantee you this is certainly not how Projet Montréal would operate. Ultimately, I want to throw all the lights on, and make it impossible for anyone or anything to escape that light – we must conduct our business out in the open and be held accountable for the decisions we make.

What would you like to see removed from the map, be it figuratively or actually?

I’d bury all the highways deep underground. It’s part of PM’s mandate to continue covering the Décarie and Ville-Marie expressways, but honestly, why stop there? We should do like Boston and stick all the highways underground covering all the exposed parts.

They’re so ugly, shitty, awful in every way. I really can’t wrap my head around the decision that was made in the 1950s to cut big long trenches through prime real estate, dividing up the city into odd pieces.

Why didn’t they think what this might do to the look and feel of city life? It’s awful. I’d love to no longer have to see any of them ever again.