MONTREAL – West Island residents are waking up with their morning coffee and toast to some big political changes in their respective town halls.
Five new mayors will soon be sworn in following a late night of political drama.
New mayors will represent the towns of Senneville, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Beaconsfield, Kirkland and Pointe-Claire.
Two incumbents fell as residents voted for sweeping change.
In Kirkland, twenty year city councillor Michel Gibson upset incumbent mayor John Meaney.
Gibson, who worked side-by-side with Meaney for two decades, ran on a campaign of change vowing to do more for the ageing population and promising to install water games in some of the town’s public parks.
WATCH: Upset in the Kirkland Mayoral race. Plus, other West Island results
In Senneville, community activist Jane Guest defeated incumbent George McLeish in an election fought mostly along one major issue: What to do with a large piece of green space property on Senneville Road.
Guest, promises to maintain the space while proposing a senior’s residence eventually be built.
McLeish wanted the city’s master urban plan to allow for a limited housing project of single family homes to be built.
A referendum question on a separate ballot to allow the master plan to go forward was defeated.
The battle between protecting green space versus housing development also loomed large in the Beaconsfield election.
George Bourelle won the election on a promise to protect the Angell Woods park — a vast territory of woods, trails and cut grass the size of 200 football fields. Bourelle hopes either the provincial government will intervene to protect the space or the city of Montreal will buy the property. The land is owned by real estate speculators and conservation groups. The city has considered plans to allow up to 500 housing units be built but now the proposed housing projects are in question.
VIDEO: Beaconsfield’s new Mayor George Bourelle talks with Global Montreal
Pointe-Claire also has a new mayor. Morris Trudeau, the city councillor of fifteen years defeated John Belvedere in a hotly contested fight to run the city of 31,000 people.
Trudeau’s win follows a tradition of Pointe-Claire always voting for mayors with previous council experience.
“In the last 100 years there’s never been a mayor elected in Pointe-Claire that has not served at least a term or served on council,” Trudeau said just past midnight when the results were announced.
Video: Morris Trudeau elected Pointe-Claire’s new Mayor
Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue town councillor Paola Hawa won her election for mayor running on promises to bring in big changes to the lake front town.
She is one of three woman to hold mayoralty positions in the West Island — joining Guest and Baie d’Urfé mayor Maria Tutino who was easily re-elected.
One of the top issues all of the West Island mayors will be forced to deal with are relations with newly elected Montreal mayor Denis Coderre.
Fighting to keep control of local water filtration plants especially in the cities of Pointe-Claire and Dorval are pressing concerns for the respective towns.
The other contentious issue is the fight over tax dollars. Several demerged towns send more than have of their revenues to the city of Montreal – meaning local property tax dollars don’t stay in their respective towns.
The newly elected mayors will likely want to re-negotiate tax amounts and terms with Coderre over how much of their budgets should be sent to Montreal.
The newly elected mayors should be formally sworn in within the next week.
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