With 17 days to go until Montrealers vote for their next municipal leaders, the choice for Mayor may have become clearer for some depending on where you stand.
Coalition Montreal's Jean Fortier made it official and abandoned his bid to become mayor of Montreal on Wednesday.
His name will remain on the ballot, but even he admits he won't be voting for himself.
"What we've realized is that its' a difficult to get all the media lined up and to pass this message and get it across. Maybe we lacked some financial resources that we needed," Fortier said.
Coalition Montreal's interim leader Marvin Rotrand even admitted, somewhat reluctantly, it's the best course of action for his party.
"It's not a perfect marriage. It's not even a marriage, or a merger or anything. We agreed to collaborate and work together to change city council," Rotrand said.
"The message that I'm sending today is that I'm really open and that's what I want to bring out, is to change the culture. She's got her Pink Line, we've got our Ligne de Savoir. We've got something in common," he said.
As for Denis Coderre, he was less than impressed by the announcement.
"I don't know what [Plateau Borough Mayor] Mr. Ferrandez will say, because the administration Ferrandez-Plante, he said already that those who are coming with us were bought. Is it the same thing for them?" he told CTV Montreal.
While it's not often Valerie Plante and Denis Coderre agree on issues, the two main mayoral candidates both voiced opposition to the passing a of Bill 62, the National Assembly's law concerning religious neutrality.
Part of the bill states anyone seeking to give or receive public services must have their face uncovered. The law includes municipalities and public transit agencies.
"What I want to see is how it is applicable, and right now it is not applicable. We will not ask our bus drivers, for example to become a scarf police. It doesn't make any sense" Plante told CTV Montreal.
Coderre had the same reaction.
"So what does it mean now? Niqab police as bus drivers? What are we going to do in libraries? And refuse to provide them with services? If [a woman is] freezing with their children [at the bus], we say, 'Well, now you have to pull that off.' I don't think the doability is there," he said.
Bill 62, Jean Fortier, public transit, Formula E, road work and much, much more will likely be hot topics as the two candidates take part in their first debate, in French, at the Sheraton Centre.
Then on Monday, October 23, Plante and Coderre will take part in the official English language debate at Concordia University's Oscar Peterson concert hall, presented by CJAD 800, CTV Montreal and the Montreal Gazette.
As the main mayoral candidates prepare for their debate, other borough mayors and City Councillors are stepping up and making their voice heard.
On Wednesday Christian Arsenault, the Projet Montreal municipal candidate in the Cote-de-Neiges/NDG -Loyola District and Lionel Perez, City Councillor and Team Denis Coderre candidate in the Côte-des-Neiges/NDG Darlington District joined the Natasha Hall show on CJAD 800 for one of many Issues Debates leading up to election day.
The topic of the day was road work and traffic.
Perez, the executive committee member responsible for the roadwork, said since Team Coderre took over four years ago the state of Montreal's roads has drastically changed.
"There's a generation for which nothing was done or very little was done," Perez said. "And what we're doing is the responsible thing, and we're doing it in a transparent way, and we're doing it in a way to maintain costs and ensure quality."
The Projet Montreal candidate said responsible or not, Montrealers are still hurting.
"We're one of the worst-off cities in Canada as far as traffic is concerned," Arseneault said, "and while we completely understand the need to catch up on years of under-investment in infrastructure, we do think there was a poor job in coordinating and planning the work."
Perez fired back, attacking his opponent where his party has the most support.
"You look at the Plateau, on 69 kilometres of the local network, in 2016, they fixed 300 metres. In best case scenario they should be doing four per cent which would be about four kilometres" Perez said. "And Rosemont did about a kilometre."
Perez added that his team has completed a record number of road work, which did not impress Arsenault.
"It's one thing to say that 'we've done a record number' but the issue here is not how much has been done, what we've been saying from the beginning is that we could have coordinated it from the beginning."
Perez closed the debate by saying he is sympathetic to Montrealers' frustrations, but insists more people tell him they appreciate the efforts to mitigating the worst elements of the roadwork.
Arseneault ended the debate by saying his party wants to get Montrealers moving again and out of traffic nightmares, mainly via Valerie Plante's signature campaign promise, the Pink Metro Line.