Montreal mayoralty candidates are right to take stand on charter

I am afraid I may have some bad news for Jean-Franois Lise.

On Thursday morning, the minister responsible for Montreal argued that the city's next mayor will not have a mandate to attack the PQ government's proposed Charter of Quebec values.

"We see that all four candidates are unanimous in their opposition to the Charter. But voters aren't unanimous. One quarter of anglophones, one third of allophones, and two thirds of francophones are favourable to many of the provisions which will be in the Charter," he said.

"What that means," Lise added,"is that the new mayor will not be able to say that he or she has a mandate from Montrealers since they all have the same position. Voters will not have had a choice."

Well, actually Montrealers do have a choice.

Michel Brul, the leader of Integrit Montral is running for mayor with a team of 24 other candidates.

And he's told me he fully supports the Charter.

So if we follow Jean Francois Lise's reasoning, support for the charter on the island of Montreal will be gauged by the percentage of votes Brul and the other Integrit Montral candidates obtain on November 3rd.

Drapeau never stood on the sidelines

Lisealso had itwrong when he told reporters the mayoral candidates should follow the lead of former Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau and not get involved in a matter of provincial jurisdiction.

In fact, on October 5, 1983, Mayor Drapeau testified before a parliamentary hearing examining Bill 57 theproposed changes to Bill 101.

Drapeau said Bill 101 had hurt the Montreal economy and its international reputation. He asked for special status for Montreal to allow the city to post bilingual signs and to have greater access to English schools.

Here are Drapeau's opening comments (in French):