Despite a tumultuous campaign, Balarama Holness, candidate for mayor of Montreal and leader of the Mouvement Montreal party, is aiming for the election of 10 of his candidates in the various boroughs of the metropolis, following Sunday’s vote.
“For us, 10, that would be a victory,” he said on Friday morning, during a press briefing in front of the town hall, surrounded by a dozen candidates from his party. “For many people, it may seem very ambitious, but we are working on the ground and we will put all our energy over the next two days to get the vote out.”
“We are going to amaze the world (” shock the world “)! », Launched Mr. Holness.
Mouvement Montréal presents 68 candidates to the 103 positions that are to be filled in the 19 boroughs during the vote held on November 6 and 7 in the metropolis.
Balarama Holness invites citizens to vote “with their hearts” rather than attempting to make a strategic choice. According to him, his party offers a new vision for the future of Montreal, while other political parties offer “archaic” programs.
Even though no poll since the start of the election campaign has given him more than 13% of Montrealers’ voting intentions, he says he receives a lot of support in the field, and remains optimistic.
“Multilingual city”
One of the main proposals of Mr. Holness’s program – the holding of a referendum to give the metropolis a bilingual status – has sparked controversy, since the charter of Montreal stipulates that it is a city of French language.
On Friday, Mouvement Montréal’s candidate for mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Nadeem Sohail, also pointed out that, according to him, “Montreal is a multicultural and multilingual city” where everyone should have the right to receive municipal services in the language. Of his choice.
Jayoti Nanda, candidate for mayor of Verdun, added by affirming that it was not necessary to “put French before people”, and by noting that Mouvement Montreal presented the most multi-ethnic team, which would allow it to properly represent the diversity of the Montreal population.