The leader of the Courage party, Sue Montgomery, intends to campaign with the government of Quebec to obtain the split of Côte-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce into two boroughs, for which she is also demanding an increase in funding.
The mayor of the most populous district of the metropolis presented on Wednesday the main lines of the platform of her new Courage party, in which she is running to run for a new term in the same position, in anticipation of the municipal election in November.
Ms. Montgomery argues that the request to separate this borough of more than 166,500 inhabitants into two has been made to her many times in the last few weeks during her door-to-door operations, both in Côte-des-Neiges and in Notre -Lady-of-Grace. Asked on the sidelines of a press conference held in a park opposite the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, the elected official, who was ejected from the Projet Montréal caucus in January 2020, argued that these two neighborhoods , which concentrates 10% of Montrealers, have very different cultural, demographic and economic realities.
“Residents in both districts say it doesn’t make sense that Côte-des-Neiges and [Notre-Dame-de-Grâce] be together. So it’s better and it will be easier to manage if they are separate boroughs with one council each, ”she said. However, she assures us that there is no “animosity” between these two neighborhoods. “There’s just no natural connection,” she said.
Convince Quebec
However, the creation of a new borough is the responsibility of Quebec. Ms. Montgomery has indicated that she intends to discuss with the various provincial parties, in anticipation of the provincial elections of 2022, to try to convince them of the relevance of her request.
“We are going to speak with all the parties to make an argument to divide the borough in two,” said Ms. Montgomery, who was with her five candidates for the occasion.
Ms. Montgomery did not want to come forward as to which sector of Côte-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce she would prefer to lead, if this borough were in fact split in two.
More details will follow.