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In its newly-released electoral platform, the Parti au Service du Citoyen, which has aspirations of dethroning long-serving incumbent Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, is proposing that future Laval mayors not be able to serve more than two terms, that a moratorium be imposed on all construction in Laval’s forests and wetlands, and that there be free public transit for seniors and parents travelling 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.
21 seats, 7 council candidates
These are some of the major proposals contained in a 24-page electoral program that would be implemented by the party between now and 2013, if the PSC were to elect enough councillors on Nov. 1 to form an administration. As it now stands, that would be unlikely, since as of last week the PSC had only seven candidates running for the City of Laval’s 21 district seats. As it is, however, the party could yet form the first opposition block to be seen in city council in decades.
Robert Bordeleau, who gave himself an early start nearly two years ago with the goal of taking on the political monolith at Laval City Hall, hopes to tap into what he claims is an unseen reservoir of discontent among Laval’s municipal voters. He maintains they have been lulled into a state of complacency by Vaillancourt’s two decades of uninterrupted tenure. Bordeleau’s criticisms of the current administration’s policies are not as strident as his sheer indignation that the Parti Pro des Lavallois, Vaillancourt’s party, has won every seat on city council election after election — one result being, Bordeleau suggests, that city council meetings are typically conducted with neither debate nor alternative ideas.
Time for questions?
Karl Leclerc, a Chomedey resident who was one of about 150 people who turned up for the PSC’s campaign launch on Boulevard Le Corbusier on Aug. 26, is fairly typical of the type of Laval voter who is disenchanted with the current administration. “Basically, decades of the same administration make us ask questions,” he told TLN. “Are things a little bit rusty? Do we need a new administration with a little bit more accountability and open doors?” Leclerc said he voted for the Vaillancourt team in previous elections. As to whether the current mayor does a good job, he added, “It is debatable whether the job he does is good … What I see is a lack of vision.
“Sometimes it’s difficult in terms of political environment provincially or federally to achieve goals. But the dreams and realizations for a modern, new centralized Laval somehow never took place. Sometimes the question is — is it the administration, or is it just the political environment and the economy? And, yes, maybe these are harder times for the administration to achieve those goals, but I think it has been long enough now. What wanted to be achieved previously somehow has to be achieved and we have to stop going around in circles and not getting anywhere.”
Ethics commissioner
In other important elements of the PSC’s program, the party is promising to “focus on citizens opinions” in the city administration, create councillors’ offices at the centre of each neighbourhood, and create positions for an ethics commissioner and an ombudsman. “Why an ethics commissioner?” Bordeleau said during a speech to his supporters. “Because we have a code of conduct that deals with the elected officials or city employees, but no one to monitor it.
“So the commissioner of ethics post would take care of that. As for the ombudsman, if anyone wants to complain about the actual mayor, who can one go to? The present mayor is also the prefect of the MRC, because Laval is the administrative centre for the region, so he heads that. On the Conseil régional des élus he’s also president. So to whom can residents complain if they’re not happy with the current mayor? That’s what we want to change by installing an ethics commissioner and an ombudsman.”