Projet Montreal leadership candidates hold final debate

CTV Montreal: Projet Montreal debates The two remaining candidates in the Projet Montreal leadership race focused on how to defeat Denis Coderre in their last debate.

The two candidates for the leadership of Projet Montreal spent their final debate in NDG concentrating on how to defeat Mayor Denis Coderre.

In a debate that was both bilingual and respectful Guillaume Lavoie and Valerie Plante each laid out their experience and their visions for the city.

Among them: improving public transit, easing the pains of contruction, and bringing more diversity to city hall.

"I've been talking about those issues for a very a long time," said Plante. "I understand intersectionality. I understand how to apply very concrete measures to support underrepresented communities, whether women, aboriginal communities, or racialized or coming from immigration."

Three years to prepare

The leadership race was triggered three years ago, when party founder Richard Bergeron failed in his third attempt to become mayor, although he continues to be a city councillor.

Two years ago Bergeron left Projet Montreal to sit as an independent and sit on Coderre's executive committee as the overseer of downtown development.

Earlier this month Bergeron announced he would run again but this time as a member of Team Denis Coderre.

Coderre accused of being impulsive

Whoever convinces Projet Montreal supporters will have to take on Coderre, whom Lavoie described as an impulsive one-man band.

"Mr. Coderre is well known and is also well known for his bad mistakes. Flushgate, pit bull bans, contracts to friends of regimes... A lot of things he has done are not in the general interest of the city," said Lavoie.

Both say Montreal is ready for a more modern and inclusive approach to running city hall.

"We need to offer a type of politician that is different from Mayor Coderre. A type of politician not as formatted as him, because he knows what to say, and he knows exactly how to play with the camera. What I'm offering is a very different model of politician," said Plante.

Both believe Coderre can be beaten.

"The future is not written. It's not written for us and it's not written for Mr. Coderre," said Lavoie.

Advance polling among the 3,000 members of Projet Montreal begins on Wednesday, with the final votes and the counting taking place Sunday Dec. 4.

Whoever wins will have ten months to convince Montrealers to put their faith in a new mayor -- and a party whose founder works hand-in-hand with Coderre.