By Peter Hadekel - Louise Harel walks to a news conference on June 3, 2009, with Vision Montreal party leader Benoit Labonté. Premier Jean Charest suggests Montrealers take a look at Harel's record: "They will judge the track record of Madame Harel and then they will make their decision." Photograph by: Allen McInnis, The Gazette


Louise Harel‘s candidacy for mayor of Montreal has landed with a thud in large parts of the city where she is regarded with suspicion if not outright hostility.
The former PQ cabinet minister‘s role as the architect of municipal mergers makes her damaged goods. After all, the Montreal megacity has not come close to delivering on its promise of lower costs and better services.
What credibility would she have as a municipal leader after launching the whole project?
Even worse is her apparent determination to turn the mayoral campaign into yet another debate on the governance of Montreal.
It’s true that the current structure of city boroughs and semi-autonomous municipalities is far from ideal. But that’s partly because of the mess Harel herself left behind.
Her solution – even more centralization – is just more of the same failed policy of the past.
Reopening this can of worms will deflect attention from what should be the real issue in the next campaign: how to improve the Montreal economy.
On that score, Harel’s credentials are weak. While her right-man in Montreal politics is Benoit Labonté, who served four years as president of the Board of Trade, he was a cheerleader for the failed mergers.
What’s more, Harel’s pro-sovereignty convictions would leave her at odds with large parts of the island of Montreal.
Federalists in this city want no part of the economic uncertainty that comes with the Quebec independence issue. Montreal has a central role in the Canadian economy and it needs a mayor who’s committed to working with leaders in the rest of the country.
Of equal concern is Harel’s left-wing baggage. She was a vocal social democrat in the PQ who loved to tax and spend. She would probably not champion the kind of policies that would promote business investment.
What’s disappointing about the upcoming race is the absence of a strong pro-economy candidate.
Mayor Gérald Tremblay might like to pass himself off as such, but his record on economic development hasn’t been great. There were high hopes for the former businessman who once served as industry minster in the provincial government, but he hasn’t brought a clear vision to the task.
Real estate development is one example. While it’s not always easy to get the public on board, the Tremblay administration has done a poor job of working with communities affected by proposed projects in the Peel Basin and Griffintown.
Its attitude has been to charge ahead without really asking communities what kind of projects they want.
Economic development has been disappointing, too. Promotion of Montreal and prospecting for investment has been centralized through the parapublic agency Montreal International. But private investment levels have fallen significantly since the start of the decade.
It’s nor clear where decision-making lies and there is talk that both companies and public officials find the system overly bureaucratic.
Meanwhile, Montreal’s economy continues to languish, as per-capita income ranks below competing cities in Canada and poverty problems persist. Serious issues need to be addressed, like the decline of the city’s manufacturing base.
Manufacturing output in 2008 was nearly 20 per cent below where it was in 2000. This year, with the effect of the recession, it’s slated to fall a further 4.7 per cent, according to a forecast by the Conference Board of Canada.
Of course, there are broader reasons for the decade-long decline, including the shift of
manufacturing activity to China and India, along with the rise in the Canadian dollar.
Even so, Montreal hasn’t come up with alternatives to counter the losses.
One problem with the bigger-is-better approach to municipal government is that it’s fostered complacency. The pro-mergerites feared competition between municipalities. But, just like in the business world, competition can make a municipal government stronger.
In its absence, we are seeing a city that’s losing ground to off-island suburbs and an economy that’s hit the wall.
There’s been a lot of talk about economic paralysis in Montreal, or immobilisme, as they say in French. The candidates in this race seem to promise more of the same.
phadekel@videotron.ca