Fallout stories from the election
Marc-Antoine Desjardins says he was betrayed by Balarama Holness and, piling on after Hadrien Parizeau, another defeated Ensemble candidate, Réal Ménard, is going public with his complaints against Denis Coderre’s campaign.
Meantime, various media wonder what Denis Coderre will do next.
But you know what? We don’t have to care about any of that!
In better news, five Black women are now part of city council, including Dominique Ollivier, Vieux-Rosemont councillor and Valérie Plante’s choice as new chair of the executive council.



walkerp 10:47 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
It was somebody here in the comments who first mentioned that Holness was suspect. I can’t remember the exact words, but something like fraud or being entirely out for himself. That seems to be borne out by his behaviour.
Kate 12:05 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
I think everyone saw from the start that it made no sense for Holness and Desjardins to try to merge their parties, even on a temporary basis. I don’t think Holness was in the wrong.
walkerp 15:39 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
Well according to the article, he changed comms without checking with Desjardins and made a unilateral decision to hold the language referendum for Montreal, which does seem pretty messed up. And his constant refrain of “I’m the boss” as his explanation (which he also used in the CBC article about how he didn’t listen to volunteers and colleagues in his other org) seems pretty uncool.
Ian 17:19 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
Not much different from Plante or Coderre in the end, at least in that regard. They’re all autocrats in their own way, the only decision was to see whose general, not predicated on provincial power goals align with your own more.
ant6n 21:16 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
If one plays close attention, this a continuiation of the discussion on how Montreal does not have a real parliament with democratic parties, but instead a collection of wannabe autocrats. In pratice, this deficiency doesn`t matter so much, because the municipal level doesn`t have much power. With some imagination (or perhaps a look at other cities), one can perhaps see that there may a better way (and no, it´s not about trying to drag the nationalist debate onto the municipal level)
Kate 09:47 on 2021-11-11 Permalink
ant6n, does your comment belong below in our discussion of municipal parties?
ant6n 16:54 on 2021-11-11 Permalink
I think the issues are very connected