How Concordia Candidates Fared in the Municipal Election

NewsMichael Wrobel — Published November 5, 2013 | Updated November 5, 2013 at 7:50am

In Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough Russell Copeman defeated three other candidates to be elected as borough mayor with 29.4 per cent of the vote.

Since 2008, he has worked at Concordia University as associate vice-president for external affairs, acting as a liaison between Concordia and officials at all levels of government. Prior to joining Concordia, he represented the electoral district of NDG in the Quebec National Assembly for 14 years.

Copeman told The Link on Monday he’ll now leave his administrative position at Concordia because of both time constraints and potential conflicts of interest, but he’ll stay on as an adjunct professor, teaching a class in the political science department in the winter semester.

“It’s very clear to me that I cannot continue in that present capacity with the university, dealing with the government,” he said. “I could end up phoning a government minister and they would never be sure whether I would be calling on behalf of Concordia University or in my capacity as a member of city council and borough mayor.”

Copeman added that the past 10 weeks of campaigning have made evident the very significant challenges facing the borough and the city.

“It’s now time, with my fellow councillors, to start tackling some of those significant challenges,” he said. “Many of them are complex questions, and there’s no easy or simple solution. If there were easy and simple solutions, someone smarter than [me] would have found them some time ago.”

He said the borough’s newly elected officials will have to set aside “the partisan nature of city council and borough council” to address issues like traffic, infrastructure and access to affordable and good-quality housing.

“In terms of process and mechanics, it’s going to be a bit of a challenge,” he said, referring to the fact that the borough’s voters elected city councillors from three different political parties, as well as an independent candidate.

“There are two Projet Montréal councillors, two Coalition Montréal councillors, one [Équipe Denis] Coderre councillor and an independent councillor, so I think the first order of business is to make sure we can all work together.”

Projet Montréal’s candidate for borough mayor, 35-year-old lawyer Michael Simkin, came in second with 26.2 per cent of the vote, followed by Groupe Mélanie Joly’s Andrew Ross with 22.2 per cent and Équipe Denis Coderre’s Kevin Copps with 22.1 per cent.

Disappointment in the Sud-Ouest

Meanwhile, two candidates with a connection to Concordia that ran for Sud-Ouest borough mayor fell short of being elected.

Jason Prince, a part-time professor at Concordia’s School of Community and Public Affairs, ran for borough mayor under the banner of Projet Montréal.

Even though his party grabbed all four of the borough’s city council seats, Prince finished in second place with 27.0 per cent of the vote—just 115 votes behind incumbent borough mayor Benoit Dorais, who ran with Coalition Montréal and won with 27.5 per cent support.

Prince was not available for comment before press time.

Cindy Filiatrault, who graduated from Concordia in 2008 with an undergraduate degree in sociology, ran for borough mayor with Groupe Mélanie Joly and finished in third place.

The 36-year-old told The Link on Monday that Projet Montréal is a party she “respects enormously,” despite diverging visions on topics like public transit—her party supported the creation of a bus-rapid-transit system instead of the tramway proposed by Projet Montréal. Filiatrault added her party also agreed with Coalition Montréal on some issues.

She says she’ll find ways to stay involved and work with the elected city councillors and borough mayor over the next four years.

“I live here, so I’m going to stay involved in the South-West, and I’m going to stay involved in Le Vrai changement,” she said, adding that the party will meet to discuss how to move forward. “I’ve met so many amazing people, I’ve gotten involved now and that’s just going to increase [….] I’m going to keep on doing this.”

Elsewhere in the city, 27-year-old Daniel Attard, who is currently working on a second bachelor’s degree at Concordia, was not elected as city councillor in Anjou, finishing in third place under the Projet Montréal banner.

CORRECTION: The original version of this article stated that Russell Copeman will “now leave his position at Concordia.” In fact, he will only leave his administrative position as associate vice-president of external affairs, but will remain an adjunct professor. The article has been updated accordingly. The Link regrets the error.