September 9, 1999 

  You would think that by now I would be fed up with mayoring, that cynicism and weariness would have taken their toll, and that the impulse to step off the whirligig of politics would have been irresistible. Yet to no one's surprise - least of all my own - I have announced I am going to run for mayor once again. Unlike Chief Justice Tony Lamer, I still have fire in the belly - although at times I think it's just heartburn.

Besides, what choice do I have? How could I step down at this difficult moment in Westmount's 125-year history - when it is not entirely certain that Westmount's name will still grace a map a few years from now?

Westmount's demise could come about in two ways: either we suffer the sudden death of Bourque's one-island-one-city scheme or we contemplate the slow strangulation implicit in the Harel proposition. The latter method is much more likely to happen. If ever Louise Harel succeeds in installing a new level of directly-elected government in the Greater Montreal Region, it won't be long before its constituent cities become marginalized into sheer irrelevance. That's precisely what happened in Toronto. The insidious effect of Harel's plan would be the death by a thousand cuts to local services, starting with fire protection. (The counter-argument to my amal-gamation-by-the-back-door thesis is that Quebec would never permit a megacity, as it would become a competing power. Even if they did get cold feet, we would still be stuck with a monster that would make the MUC look like a pussycat.)

Now, while it would be easy to fire up every living, breathing Westmounter in the face of a direct threat of annexation by Montreal, it'll be hard to get people to mount the barricades against the creation of a new government.

Sometimes I get angry. I get angry at the gall of Mayor Bourque and his obsession with extending his city's mismanagement and mediocrity to include us, all the while burbling on about "Montreal needs oxygen". I get angry about the Quebec government's arrogance and their cloud-cuckoo-landish proposals for yet another level of government - a complex scaffolding of bureaucracy that would be a mockery of democracy. This dirigiste belief that structures solve problems must stop.

So I shall remain on the field. But, you know, all this battling has exacted its price: photos of me when I first ran in 1991 show few gray hairs. The war between ebony and ivory is progressing apace with ivory winning the crown, so to speak. I may have caused the city to stay in the black, but the city has not returned the favour.

Hairsplitting aside, if I could not have counted on such a superb administrator as Bruce St Louis and on the unshakable support and friendship of all members of Council, I doubt if I would run.

I have become very possessive towards this city: it's friendly, it's funky, and it's family. Westmount is everything a city should be. You can depend on me to fight to the last breath to ensure its continued existence.

The best the amalgamationists come up with (other than the "too many cities" non-argument) is that it would rid Montreal of all those suburban parasites. Oh, yes. And it would also create a uniform tax rate. A uniformly high tax rate, I might add. Since when is the mere fact of uniformity a virtue?

June 10 Menu page

David Jones

#903 June 23 with David & Terry Jones in the park link to play No-Tavern story by Wayne Larsen le Maire Prud'homme, Saint Jean Baptiste,

• Menu of Trent's Stories
  
  
• March 21, 1999 GAZETTE EDITORIAL
• MAY 1999 URBICIDE AND MEGACITY MANIA
  
• May 13 PARTS OF IT ARE EXCELLENT
• May 27 MONTREAL: MISDIRECTION GENERAL
• Jun 10 BREAD AND CIRCUSES…AND DEBT AND TRUSTEESHIP
• Jun 24 ONLY QUEBEC CAN HELP MONTREAL
• Apr 8 MEGACITY MANIA - PART II
• Jun 24 ONLY QUEBEC CAN HELP MONTREAL