Councillors cross over
'A mistake': All of Tremblay's Plateau team come out against renaming Park
LINDA GYULAI and KATE LUNAU
The Gazette
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
CREDIT: PIERRE OBENDRAUF, THE GAZETTE
Park Ave. near Fairmount Ave. last night. The city's Intercultural Council, an advisory body, meets tomorrow to decide its position on the proposed name change.
In a dramatic about-face yesterday, all of Mayor Gerald Tremblay's councillors in Plateau Mont Royal borough, including the borough mayor, declared they oppose their leader's plan to rename Park Ave. and Bleury St. as Robert Bourassa Ave.
With pressure mounting from Park Ave. merchants, local residents and a growing number of online petition signatories from across the city, the six members of the Montreal Island Citizens Union party in the Plateau wasted little time heeding Tremblay's promise this weekend to allow his councillors a free vote on the name change when it comes to city council on Nov. 27.
Borough mayor Helen Fotopulos, who also has a seat in Tremblay's cabinet, known as the executive committee, said yesterday she no longer supports the name change. She and the rest of the executive committee had voted unanimously in favour of the renaming on Oct. 18.
"At some point, you have to admit it was a mistake that was made," Fotopulos said after her party's councillors from the borough met with community and business groups that oppose the name change to tell them about their decision.
"After all the people who contacted me and really spoke with a lot of feeling, a lot of soul, I think we misread the situation."
When asked if she thought her stance against renaming Park Ave. would affect her position on the executive committee, Fotopulos said: "The mayor will do what the mayor has to do."
She said she had informed Tremblay of her change of heart through a letter on Monday.
It was one of the signs of spreading dissent against Tremblay's announcement two weeks ago that Park and Bleury would be renamed to honour Bourassa, the premier who launched Tremblay's political career and who died a decade ago. It was also a snub of an internal party memo telling Tremblay's councillors not to comment on the name change.
Councillors with Tremblay's party in other parts of the city say they are considering voting against the name change.
"I'm very, very sensitive to the points of view," LaSalle councillor Alvaro Farinacci said. "I really understand how the opponents feel about Park Ave."
He said he feels as strongly about LaSalle and the southwest, where he has spent his life.
The head of the city's Intercultural Council, an advisory body created by Tremblay and composed of residents, said the members will meet tomorrow to decide their position on the name change after a formal complaint by a Greek community organization.
"Evidently, there is an intercultural dimension to this," council chairperson Frantz Benjamin said. "For many communities, this was one of the avenues historically where communities established themselves over the past century."
The Plateau group's decision means three more Tremblay city councillors will vote against the renaming. Fotopulos and city councillors Michel Labrecque and Michel Prescott join Cote des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grace councillors Warren Allmand and Marvin Rotrand in opposing the plan.
The other three Tremblay councillors in the Plateau are borough, not city, councillors.
The Plateau's seventh elected representative, city councillor Richard Bergeron, is leader of the opposition Projet Montreal. He said he opposes the renaming.
City council has 64 members plus the council speaker, who gets a vote only in the case of a tie. Tremblay's party holds a large majority, with 47 councillors, plus the mayor.
There are 16 opposition councillors, including 13 Vision Montreal members, Bergeron and two members of Equipe Anjou.
The Plateau councillors are also looking at whether to pass a borough resolution against the name change, a source said.
Labrecque, who represents the Plateau's Mile End district through which Park Ave. runs, said the mayor's promise of a free vote influenced his decision.
From the beginning, Labrecque said, he had doubts about the name change, but as a member of a party he remained in solidarity with it. "But now it is a free vote, and I will vote no."
Opinions of the Plateau councillors' move were divided.
"I respect her (Fotopulos) a lot for taking this step," said Jacques Thibault, a member of the Milton Park Citizens Committee who attended yesterday's meeting with the Plateau politicians. "It's very, very hard for anyone to say they're wrong. For a politician, it's much harder."
But Chris Karidogiannis, executive secretary of the Park Ave. Merchants Association, who also attended the meeting, said the support is two weeks late.
Protest organizer Mario Rizzi declined to attend the meeting.
"Attending a closed-door meeting with Ms. Fotopulos seemed a bit hypocritical when we've been asking for public consultation all along," Rizzi said.
lgyulai@thegazette.canwest.com
klunau@thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006
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