The goings on in Laval City Council have been hard to follow.
The Latest:
A race to become mayor will happen after all. The Gazette and the CBC has reported that Alexandre Duplessis and Jacques St-Jean will compete for mayor.
To read the story, refer to http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Next+mayor+Laval+city+councillors+headtohead/7583814/story.html
The former party offices are also currently being raided.
Prior to the latest:
In half an hour, those running for Mayor in Laval must announce their candidacy.
Meanwhile, yesterday all 20 councillors who were in the Parti PRO (Parti du Ralliement Officiel )des Lavallois – Équipe Vaillancourt resigned from the party to sit as independents.
Once the party is officially dissolved, Radio-Canada says that the $950,000 that the party has will be turned over to the City of Laval.
Radio Canada also says that Basile Angelopoulos will not run for mayor, but that councillor Alexandre Duplessis is expected to seek the position.
Prior to that:
Laval City Councillors had until 4:30 p.m. on Monday, November 13 to submit their candidacy for mayor.
Basile Angelopoulos was the only person who submitted his name, but he withdrew it after municipal affairs minister Sylvain Gaudreault decided to appoint a special auditor to oversee the city until the election next year.
“My candidacy has been withdrawn,” said Angelopoulos to CBC reporters at 7:30 p.m. Monday night. “I no longer know what type of mayor I would be in the new context that the minister has created.”
According to a press release distributed by Gaudreault’s office, the auditor will oversee all aspects of Laval administration, especially public service contracts and real estate transactions. An initial report is due by mid-January.
“Until the next election a year from now, the population of Quebec needs to have confidence in its municipal institutions,” said Gaudreault. “I want to assure them that concrete actions are and will be taken so that we will emerge stronger when this crisis is over.”
The impetus:
Just after Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt resigned on Friday, November 9 (see http://traceyarial.com/blog/laval-mayor-gilles-vaillancourt/), Claire Le Bel, who was elected Laval city councillor for Concorde-Bois-de-Boulogne in 2009, announced that she would leave the Parti PRO (Parti du Ralliement Officiel )des Lavallois – Équipe Vaillancourt to run as an independent.
“It’s not M. Vaillancourt that I wish to disassociate from, but the party in its entirety, no matter who leads it, whatever it’s called.”
“I realized last week that I didn’t have a choice,” she said. “I can no longer support the profound malaise and inaction. It’s impossible for me to keep my head up when I run into the Lavallois who elected me.”
Le Bel was absent from the council meeting held Monday, November 11. She has not yet been authorized as an independent candidate by the Director General of Quebec Elections so she may yet join one of the other two authorized political parties in Laval, the Mouvement lavallois or the Parti au service du citoyen.
