Valérie Plante decided that the attack was her best defense on Thursday evening, when her record was strongly criticized from all sides during the first televised debate of the municipal campaign.
In a cacophonous exercise, the mayor has come under heavy criticism from Denis Coderre and Balarama Holness, visibly determined to take advantage of LCN cameras to score points among voters. Mme Plante chose to jump into the fray with shortened arms.
She portrayed her predecessor as a rough candidate, who decides without consulting and serves the interests of real estate developers. Mr. Coderre argued that Montreal has been less safe, less clean and less affordable since his successor came to power.
Le débat, véhément, a même pris une tournure personnelle par moments. « Quand vous riez, vous êtes nerveuse, a ainsi lancé Denis Coderre à la mairesse sortante, après qu’elle se fut esclaffée. Arrêtez de rire, c’est trop sérieux, l’habitation. » Valérie Plante a reproché à Denis Coderre d’avoir quitté la politique municipale après sa défaite de 2017. Il lui a répondu qu’il devait s’occuper de sa santé.
Balarama Holness, pour sa part, s’est posé en candidat de la rupture, qui rejette les « grands projets » de ses opposants pour se concentrer davantage sur les arrondissements périphériques. « Nous avons le choix entre le passé et l’avenir », a répété, en substance, le chef de Mouvement Montréal, qui propose de faire de Montréal une cité-État.
Vaccination obligatoire : Plante d’accord avec le principe
Les téléspectateurs du débat ont pu entendre Valérie Plante appuyer clairement pour la première fois le principe de la vaccination obligatoire chez les employés municipaux, mais rejeter la façon dont Denis Coderre a lancé l’idée sur la table. La semaine dernière, l’ex-maire avait été le premier à exprimer sa volonté d’obliger les cols bleus, les cols blancs, les policiers, les pompiers et tous les autres fonctionnaires à se faire vacciner. La mairesse a insisté sur la nécessité de discuter avec Québec.
« Moi aussi, je suis pour la vaccination obligatoire, mais je n’arrive pas comme un truck », a-t-elle dit. « M. Coderre a dit ça sans même vérifier s’il pourrait y avoir une rupture de services. […] I find that irresponsible. ”
“What is irresponsible is that the metropolis of Quebec does not show the example”, replied the principal concerned. “Everyone must be [vacciné] “, He repeated Thursday evening. “Quebec would see it in a good light if everyone took their leadership. […] You are not playing your role of mayor, unfortunately this is another example. ”
“We didn’t need to do that”
A few days after revelations about the service cuts that may be necessary to balance the budget of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the two main candidates scrambled to find the causes of the problem.
On Wednesday, Denis Coderre argued that the STM should have reduced its expenses by reducing the level of service at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when ridership had fallen. “There has been a lack of leadership on the part of the current administration,” he reiterated Thursday evening. “Giving full service during the pandemic, we didn’t need to do that. ”
Mme Plante believed he had found his opponent’s Achilles heel there. “Do you know who used public transit during the pandemic? These are the front line workers. […] For me it was not the responsible thing to do, ”she said.
What should we say to the nurse? That she should have left an hour and a half earlier because her bus would only run for hours? She took care of people sick with COVID-19, Mr. Coderre.
Valérie Plante, Head of Project Montreal
As on other occasions, Balarama Holness refused to get involved in the quarrels of his opponents, preferring to put forward a completely different proposition: “The business model of the STM is archaic. The private sector has to fit into the situation ”of the transport company, he said. “We have to change the model. ”
Still on the issue of transportation, the construction of the Eastern Metropolitan Express Network (REM) also attracted attention. Denis Coderre proposed to “work with the process” rather than expressing fears as the current administration is doing. “We cannot say that we are for one end and against the other,” he said, referring to the concerns raised by the air portion in downtown Montreal. “We need to have a sense of the metropolis. The mayor must no longer be in the waiting room. ”
Denis Coderre has also repeatedly expressed his wish to see the metropolis of Quebec regain the stature it had – in his opinion – during his own mandate at city hall. He often criticizes the current mayor for not using all of the powers she holds and for preferring to turn to other levels of government.
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