Montreal Is Mayorless Again

Montreal Mayor's office 4 rent. via Flickr user Naufragio.

Okay, so who’s next?

Michael Applebaum resigned as mayor of Montreal yesterday, to absolutely no one’s surprise, after he was arrested Monday morning on corruption, fraud and a whole lot of other charges.

He lasted all of seven months. The former chair of the city’s executive committee replaced Gerald Tremblay in November, who quit because his administration was corrupt as shit and his “poor me, everyone lied” shtick was getting old.

Mike came in promising to clean up Montreal’s ocean of sleaze, and even passed a bunch of crime-fighting laws in March. One lets the city sue corrupt officials and makes them pay for their own lawyers (previously the city’s taxpayers paid for their legal defence, which is pretty what-the-fuck when you think about it). So Mike—if found guilty, which he certainly hasn’t been yet—may get totally screwed over by his own pro-justice legislation. Hilarious!

City council now has to pick a new mayor, again. He or she will probably come from the city’s executive council and most people are hoping it’ll be someone bland and competent. But the most important quality on everyone’s list for the city’s new dream mayor is, of course, to not be corrupt. The city will likely have a new mayor in a week or so, who will then have to compete in November’s municipal elections

Montreal and by extension Quebec, meanwhile, wallow in their own stupid mess. It’s been a ridiculous few months: first pastagate, then the mayor of Laval was arrested, then l’affaire turban, now this.

Mike’s arrest made headlines everywhere and prompted the usual soul-searching among the province’s tedious chattering classes—but honestly, I don’t get the impression that Montrealers think this is a city in crisis.

On Monday evening, I was at City Hall covering the council meeting for my boring ol’ press job and, along with all the other reporters, was expecting some serious fireworks. But… nothing. Mike’s name barely came up, and when it did, it was only to note that he was absent (rough day, duh). Members of the public only asked about bike paths, Bixis, the budget, and police brutality. Not one—not one!—asked about the mayor. Frothing reporters left disappointed.

When I spoke to some of the people attending the meeting, they kind of shrugged and said they didn’t follow local politics much (but maybe they should, some added). Uhh, the mayor’s been arrested. Hello? “Oh, they’re all corrupt.”

The attitude shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Voter turnout in Montreal municipal elections is pretty anemic, around 40 percent. So when the Globe and Mail’s Lysiane Gagnon writes that “the public now sees a criminal behind every politician, and has completely lost faith in the political process,” I think she’s mistaken is using the word “now” instead of “still,” and in leaving out the words “long ago” in the second clause.

I can’t say if Mike’s arrest will keep people from voting in November, but Montrealers are a justifiably cynical bunch when it comes to local politics. Still, the councillors I spoke to on Monday talked about the need to rebuild trust and keep working despite the circumstances, which is admirable I guess. That said, I still have the impression most (well, maybe most) of them are honest and dedicated public servants, and aren’t looking to get rich off fleecing the public.

Personally, I welcome the arrests and the scandals and the Charbonneau Commission. They are long, long overdue. Plus, they make great copy.

Henry Aubin, one of the Montreal Gazette’s better columnists, thinks the cops should have waited until the November elections were done to arrest Mike. He argues that the bust destabilizes the city (not from what I saw on Monday, and not what the councillors I spoke to said), confirms its reputation as a nest of corruption (well, it’s not like that reputation isn’t deserved or already well-established), screws with the city’s credit rating (Montreal already carries an enormous debt, so I don’t know if this is going to put it over the edge with the likes of Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s) and deepened the level of public distrust towards politicians (already low).

But justice delayed is justice denied. If the cops had a solid case against the mayor, they had a duty to bring it forward as quickly as possible. Waiting on political considerations to arrest him would not only have deepened public distrust towards politicians as Henry says, it would also have deepened public distrust towards the cops.

So Montreal carries on into the post-Applebaum era, secure in the knowledge that our corrupt politicians and their enablers are finally getting their come-uppance, and that for all their faults, our mayors aren’t obese fucking slobs who may or may not smoke crack and have people killed.

Follow Patrick on Twitter: @patricklejtenyi

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