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Saint-Jean sur Richelieu has a new mayor this morning - Alain Laplante, a pollster
by profession - and I wish to offer my sincerest congratulations.

It was an unexpected victory, and M. Laplante was elected, largely without his team.
It looks like a classic split vote situation, a retired federal politician joined the fray, and
the expected vote split between the outgoing mayor and this new candidate. But
there are rarely accidents in politics. The city is growing and small town
politics no longer makes much sense for us. M. Laplante will have to pull an Angela
Merkel and find a working coalition on City Council.

The other surprise was the election in Montreal, which is getting a female mayor.
Paris has been doing well with Anne Hidalgo as mayor, who has shown ecological
sensitivity and imagination to help the city renew itself. It was a hard fight and Me Plante
was good-humored enough to propose a pink Metro line for Montreal, to decongest
the city. My congratulations and good wishes there as well.