On November 1st all the near 2 000 Québec municipalities go to the polls to choose their administrators for the next 4 years. We used to have independant candidates for most seats, including the mayor's. Nowadays, most everywhere, we have party backed slates.
Our city of Longueuil has two municipal parties. The one in place presently has been running the town for the last 27 years. It has been tainted with quite a few seemingly conflicts of interests although all inquiries have concluded that even if some indiscretions had taken place no actual misdeeds had happen since all the officials involved, even if their companies or legal practice had profited by municipal actions, had their belongings in blind trusts and they had no say in the goings on. Still it makes me uneasy.
The other party is run by a former Bloc Québécois MP in Ottawa. Now the Bloc was set up to help bring about Québec's sovereignty and be a watchdog in Ottawa. It is now clear that soveriegnty is a most elusive goal and that the Bloc' deputation has achieved nothing but keeping Québec fron the decision making process in Ottawa irrespective of who governs. Thus it has become irrelevant and remaining there is incoherent. The lady resigned recently for family reasons (?) but soon emerged as a municipal pârty leader and mayoral candidate. Can she be trusted to be a coherent mayor? Is she part of a soveriegnist movement to take control of our city halls? Several Bloc and PQ MPs or MPPs are running all over.
If the incumbent party is of dubious morals, if the rival one has, or could have, a hidden agenda, what then are the voters supposed to do?
