Demerged mayors may step up anti-Agglom campaign during election

Reporting to Westmount city council last Monday evening on the latest developments in the suburbs' ongoing campaign to obtain important structural changes to the island's governing council, Mayor Karin Marks acknowledged that the Liberals would rather not be dealing with the Agglomeration problem during an election period.

She said a planned meeting between two of the mayors with a representative of Charest and Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau three weeks ago did not produce results. "Clearly it was supposed to be something that had meaning," she said.

"And clearly since it is an electoral period, they would be very happy if we all would not speak about the fact that this has not been well done and that it is not been a success in terms of the Agglomeration structure. But to keep us going longer and longer I don't think it is a fair way to try and have us buy into what they've done.

"So unless there is in the next few days a real change in the way the Charest government has chosen to deal with the 15 cities, we certainly will begin to be speaking out about just how badly the structure has been managed and how badly the organization on the island has been managed," said Marks.

Noting that Charest met recently with mayors of the embattled Agglomeration on Montreal's South Shore, she suggested that the meeting took place because the South Shore is not a Liberal stronghold.

"We, on the other hand, tend to be taken much more for granted because those of us who live in the western part of the city have always tended to vote Liberal," she said.

"I think they assume that that's going to be the case—that there will not be a strong move to the PQ, or perhaps the ADQ, and therefore I think that they assume that we will support them even though they haven't met with us, even though they haven't made the changes. And I think that that's a very cynical view of the population, as well, and one that is quite disturbing."

Marks said she still harbors some hope that Charest will meet the mayors of Montreal's demerged cities, as he did with their counterparts on the South Shore.

"I still hold out a very small amount of hope that will be able to do so in the coming week and that Mr. Charest will undertake, when he is elected, if he is elected, to make some changes to this structure. Because really that is what's most important."