{"id":2241,"date":"2009-03-19T01:00:45","date_gmt":"2009-03-19T05:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/2009\/03\/19\/louise-harel-for-mayor\/"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:05:23","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:05:23","slug":"louise-harel-for-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/03\/19\/louise-harel-for-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"Louise Harel for mayor?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hasemeister\/415329356\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/98\/415329356_c254577ce3.jpg?v=0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the past year or so, it has been taken for granted that this year&#8217;s race for mayor will pit G\u00e9rald Tremblay against Beno\u00eet Labont\u00e9, with Richard Bergeron nipping at their heels. Increasingly, though, it&#8217;s looking as if that won&#8217;t be the case after all, as some are now suggesting that Louise Harel is gearing up to run for mayor. According to the political analysis blog <a href=\"http:\/\/lelectronlibre.net\/2009\/03\/16\/louise-harel-vision-montreal-projet-montreal\">L&#8217;\u00c9lection libre<\/a>, Harel&#8217;s aim is to push both Bergeron and Labont\u00e9 out of their leadership positions in order to run for a united Vision Montr\u00e9al-Projet Montr\u00e9al ticket.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>Quand Louise Harel affirmait que \u00ab <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cyberpresse.ca\/actualites\/regional\/montreal\/200902\/16\/01-828008-montreal-est-completement-desorganise-affirme-louise-harel.php\">Montr\u00e9al est compl\u00e8tement d\u00e9sorganis\u00e9e<\/a> \u00bb, il fallait lire le sous-entendu: \u00ab je vais r\u00e9organiser Montr\u00e9al \u00bb. L\u2019ancienne d\u00e9put\u00e9 p\u00e9quiste s\u2019est retir\u00e9e de la politique provinciale en novembre pour mieux se lancer en politique municipale. Son plan de match: fusionner Projet Montr\u00e9al et Vision Montr\u00e9al afin de devenir la mairesse de Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n<p>Selon mes sources, pas une journ\u00e9e ne se passe sans que Richard Bergeron, chef de Projet Montr\u00e9al, ne re\u00e7oive son lot d\u2019appels de membres du r\u00e9seau Harel ou de diverses personnalit\u00e9s qu\u2019elle a acquises \u00e0 sa cause. Le propos est toujours le m\u00eame: \u00ab d\u00e9missionne Richard, laisse la fusion se faire \u00bb. Harel tisse son r\u00e9seau dans l\u2019ombre et il ne lui manque que la pi\u00e8ce ma\u00eetresse &#8211; la reddition de Bergeron &#8211; pour arriver, triomphante, \u00e0 la t\u00eate d\u2019un Vision Montr\u00e9al qu\u2019elle a contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 d\u00e9sorganiser.<\/p>\n<p>En effet, si on bl\u00e2me beaucoup le maire Labont\u00e9 pour son manque de leadership, force est de constater que plusieurs des membres d\u00e9missionnaires de la derni\u00e8re ann\u00e9e attendent beaucoup de Harel. Qu\u2019on pense simplement \u00e0 Claire St-Arnaud, ex-conseill\u00e8re municipale de Maisonneuve-Longue-Pointe et amie de Louise Harel depuis 25 ans. Ou Robert Laram\u00e9e, qui avait \u00e9t\u00e9 battu par Beno\u00eet Labont\u00e9 par 839 voix en 2005 (alors que ce dernier \u00e9tait dans le Union Montr\u00e9al de G\u00e9rald Tremblay). Ou Christine Hernandez, ex-pr\u00e9sidente de Vision Montr\u00e9al dans Outremont, qui a fini troisi\u00e8me derri\u00e8re Union Montr\u00e9al et Projet Montr\u00e9al et qui aurait gagn\u00e9 advenant une fusion avec ce dernier parti.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For nearly three decades, Harel represented the people of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in the National Assembly, and she has always been popular in her home riding. But she was also the PQ minister responsible for the municipal mergers, a controversial legacy she might have trouble shrugging off. She continues to insist that the mergers were the right thing to do, but she is a fierce critic of the new decentralized borough system, which she says takes far too much power out of the hands of City Hall, creating a fragmented city that is difficult to govern. <a href=\"http:\/\/angryfrenchguy.com\/2009\/03\/17\/montreal-mayor-gerald-tremblay-bets-re-election-on-race-card\/\">Speculation<\/a> is building about how the election will pan out.<\/p>\n<p>But let&#8217;s look beyond the election and assume that Harel wins. What kind of a mayor could we expect? Would she focus most of her energies on dismantling the borough system that has been established since the mergers? Would she align herself more closely with the progressive policies of Projet Montr\u00e9al or the more conservative Vision Montr\u00e9al? Most importantly, how would she differ in her policies and approach from G\u00e9rald Tremblay, whose tenure as mayor has accomplished some interesting things (the demolition of the Pine\/Park interchange and the construction of the de Maisonneuve bike path, for instance) but seems to lack an overall sense of direction?<\/p>\n<p><i>Photo by Fred Mahieu<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past year or so, it has been taken for granted that this year&#8217;s race for mayor will pit G\u00e9rald Tremblay against Beno\u00eet Labont\u00e9, with Richard Bergeron nipping at their heels. Increasingly, though, it&#8217;s looking as if that won&#8217;t be the case after all, as some are now suggesting that Louise Harel is gearing<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/03\/19\/louise-harel-for-mayor\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Louise Harel for mayor?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7840],"tags":[649,1275,1457,400,8,3803,3805,3802,729,2194,346,3806,522,992,3804],"class_list":["post-2241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-benoit-labonte","tag-chef","tag-christine-hernandez","tag-city-hall-2","tag-city-hall","tag-claire-st-arnaud","tag-fierce-critic","tag-fred-mahieu","tag-gerald-tremblay","tag-louise-harel","tag-mayor","tag-national-assembly","tag-pinepark-interchange","tag-richard-bergeron","tag-robert-laramee"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Louise Harel for mayor? - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/03\/19\/louise-harel-for-mayor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Louise Harel for mayor? - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the past year or so, it has been taken for granted that this year&#8217;s race for mayor will pit G\u00e9rald Tremblay against Beno\u00eet Labont\u00e9, with Richard Bergeron nipping at their heels. 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