Benoît Labonté's sudden demotion may have brought temporary relief to Mayor Gérald Tremblay and his team, but the weekend's tumult really puts more pressure on the mayor.
Tremblay's challenger Louise Harel abruptly unloaded Labonté yesterday, after unsubstantiated news reports about cash donations from a contractor. Harel has campaigned as the alternative to sleaze, so the weekend development seems to be a setback for her.
Indeed it won't do her much good. Labonté, an experienced city hall hand, left Tremblay's party two years ago to position himself for a run at the big job, but abruptly abandoned his own candidacy last summer when Harel got into the race. Backing her earned him a spot as her right-hand man.
Now all that has evaporated. The climate at city hall - police investigations, conflicts of interest, fat contracts, innuendo and a general nasty smell - means that even an accusation without evidence can poison a candidate. Montrealers are prepared to believe almost anything unsavoury about city government.
But this is ultimately Tremblay's problem more than Harel's. As Montrealers tune in the Tremblay-Harel debate tonight, the question they want answered is: "Who will drain this swamp?"
Just Saturday we said in this space that some of the swirling allegations may be unfair. During an election campaign, after all, any claims without engraved-on-granite proof must be handled cautiously.
Still, what we know for certain - conflicts of interest, absence of guidelines, general laxity, shadowy party financing, including "anonymous" contributions - suggests that we have more than a theoretical problem at city hall.
True, the new broom Harel promised to wield seems less clean and stiff today. But the real question raised by all this is about the way city hall runs - and Tremblay has been in charge there for eight long years.
Accordingly, the mayor needs to come out swinging, as early as today, with comprehensive proposals to clean things up.
He could start by declining any more anonymous donations, an issue Harel was hammering this weekend. Montreal may have a corps of disinterested, benevolent, shy donors eager to help Tremblay's party, but we doubt it. Anonymity seems more likely to be just a way around campaign-financing and disclosure rules.
There are other specifics Tremblay could mention, too, but what he really needs to do is to formally call on the Quebec government to convene a formal, full-dress inquiry, with subpoena powers and proper resources, into aspects of his own administration. The government, which has so far shown little interest in such an inquiry, could hardly refuse a direct request from the mayor - one which other parties would surely endorse.
Nobody has challenged Tremblay's personal integrity, but he has come to seem like a Mr. Magoo figure, blindly wandering through a soggy, reeking swamp, but somehow keeping his shoes dry and his pant cuffs clean. That will not be enough for voters who by now are growing thoroughly alarmed about standards and practices at city hall.