Projet Montréal held the last of ten leadership debates tonight after a marathon contest to pick the party's candidate for mayor, who will face off against Denis Coderre next November.
Tonight's debate was bilingual, and the candidates did make a few overtures specifically to English speaking Montrealers, who the party sees as critical voters in its crusade to expand its base of support in the suburban boroughs where it has struggled in the past.
Lavoie has emerged as the party establishment's clear favourite: he says that over two-thirds of the party's city council caucus is backing him. But not everybody is convinced: Eric Taylor, a McGill student who has volunteered for Projet Montréal for the past few years, said he's still undecided but that he's leaning toward Valérie Plante. He told CJAD 800 News that he found Lavoie to be "condescending" at several points in the debate.
Lavoie argues that the city's administration is not reflective of the diverse population they govern. In particular, he points to police and emergency services, who are overwhelmingly white and francophone; he says that making services like the SPVM more diverse would improve community relations. Plante agrees that the city administration needs to be more racially and linguistically diverse, but she also emphasizes that she doesn't want people to feel "tokenized" in an attempt to create a more diverse administration.
Both candidates agreed, however, that a mayor's cabinet under either of them would be gender-equal.
Lavoie declared that on day one of his mayoralty, he would fully legalize car-sharing services across the entire city. He also emphasizes that he wants to build out the city's transit network so that it's as easy as possible to get from "your A to your B". But Plante argues that Lavoie's "your A to your B" strategy is just too vague. She points to her plan to build out the métro network by adding a new line that would start downtown and cut diagonally across the eastern half of downtown to Montréal-Nord.
There was one thing that both candidates agreed on: both want Denis Coderre out of office come next November.
The party's leadership election will be held on the 4th of December.