The mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, promises to promote the issues of the metropolis with the government of François Legault, although the latter has only elected two deputies on the island. In terms of immigration, she calls on the re-elected government to base its decisions “on facts” and to act “with humanity” in this matter.
The metropolis has as many deputies from the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) as in 2018, even if the party of François Legault has inflated its majority to 90 deputies throughout Quebec, by making gains in several regions of the province. .
The mayor, however, ensures that she will be at the front in the coming months to demand, in particular, a diversification of city revenues and an improvement in the public transport offer in Montreal. “Me, I work above all with the party in power”, declared Mme Plante, who was still pleased with the presence of three opposition party leaders elected in the metropolis. They are Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, from Québec solidaire, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, from the Parti Québécois and Dominique Anglade, from the Liberal Party.
On the other hand, M.me Plante called on Premier François Legault and his government to act “with humanity” in the management of immigration. She also said she was reassured by the unifying speech held by Mr. Legault late Monday evening in front of his activists. “I call for a calm, documented and numbers-based debate” on immigration, said Mr.me Plante, who reminds us that many businesses in the metropolis need immigrant workers more than ever.
The leader of the official opposition at city hall, Aref Salem, himself an immigrant, called on the Legault government to “stop this divisive discourse” on the immigration file. “For me, there are not two kinds of Quebecers. There are Quebecers and it’s a capital we. We have to work together,” he insisted, while recalling that immigrants are “mostly Francophiles.”
He also hopes that the City will succeed in making itself heard on certain key issues, in particular concerning environmental protection and public safety, the latter theme having been little discussed during this campaign.
More details will follow.