Montreal mayoral candidates present platforms

Election campaigns officially kicked off across the province of Quebec yesterday, and in Montreal, mayoral candidatesdidnt waste any time touting their individual platforms and how they plan to fight corruption.

Denis Coderre, Richard Bergeron, Marcel Ct and Mlanie Joly all launched their campaigns yesterday,with more than 1,000 municipalities in Quebecholding elections on Nov. 3.

In Montreal, cleaning up the city is the theme on the minds of most candidates and votersafter a year that saw the resignation of two mayors, and a series ofcorruption allegations at city hall.

Heres a brief look at what candidates said when launchingtheir campaigns:

Candidate Denis Coderre - Equipe Denis Coderre

Equipe Denis Coderre may have kicked off its campaign late last night, but more than a thousand people showed up to see the candidates and hear Coderre's plan for the city.

Coderre said he promises to fight poverty and homelessness, and to be tough on corruption.

He also said he wants to get ownership of the Old Port shore line back from the federal government and develop tourist attractions, with the city's upcoming 375th anniversary providing the right opportunity for the negotiations.

When you have a celebration, there's money attached to it, so we won't have that kind of excuse saying that 'well Ihave to go to the treasury board first, and we have to create another program.' That program already exists, so we canwork and manage it, said Coderre.

Coderre also announced 14 new candidates to his team, bringing the totalto 90.

He says there will be more candidate announcements to come.

TeamCoderresaidthere will not be any campaign posters for their party leaderbecause they believe his faceis already well-known to Montreals.

Candidate Richard Bergeron - Projet Montral

Bergeron opened the daypromising to improve integrity and fightcorruption.

He was quick to point out that none of his candidates areformer members of Union Montral the now-defunct party of former mayor Grald Tremblay.

All these people that were in Union Montral in the last four years where are they? Not here. None of them are with us. And Im very proud of that, Bergeron said.

His party has a full slate of 103 candidates.

Another key component of Bergerons platform focuses on attracting young families to the island of Montreal.

He saidimprovements to public transit and the city's green spaces will help stop the emigration of families to the off-island suburbs.

Candidate Marcel Ct - Coalition Montral

Ct said he plans to change how the citys executive committee is structured and how it makes decisions.

He also said he plans to create a commissioner of ethics and a code of ethics that will be enforced at city hall.

If we want to build a city where one can have a good life, we have to turn the page,said Ct.

We need fundamental change in the way we run city hall, and this is what we intend to do.

Ct said he expects to introduce up to 95 candidates over the next weeks.

Candidate Melanie Joly - Groupe Mlanie Joly

After months of hard work, Joly said her team is ready and excited to kick off the campaign.

We are convinced that right now, citizens from Montreal are fed up with old politics, and basically theyll be ready for real change. And thats exactly what well be offering. Joly said.

So far, her team has only 40 candidates, but Joly says she will be introducing new candidates over the next few weeks.

Joly said, if elected, she would make sure the public had more access to information about their city.

She pointed to the need for more transparency at city hall.

All the information the city has will become public ... So if theres road work on your street, you will know who is the entrepreneur, what's his budget ... what is being done, why its being done, when it starts and when it finishes,said Joly.