Four mayoral candidates in Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough race

When Pierrefonds-Roxboro Councillor Jim Beis decided to run for mayor of the borough for the upcoming November election, he was leaning towards running as an independent candidate until “the moment I met Denis Coderre. I decided to run with his team as he is the only candidate I support for the mayoralty of Montreal.”

When Coderre introduced Beis and his other list of candidates under the Équipe Denis Coderre banner, Beis told the assembled that his objectives were to “improve the management of boroughs and be of service to our population to ensure transparent practices are done.

Beis will continue to ensure that the borough maintains its bilingual status as well as continuing negotiations “to make sure the urban boulevard is built as well as improving our bike network and providing more express buses to train stations and encourage more car pooling initiatives.”

Noting that Pierrefonds-Roxboro and the city of Montreal “have some of the same issues, we need to work on fighting homelessness, hunger and crime.”

Another incumbent councillor going for the mayor’s chair is Christian Dubois who is running with Marcel Côté’s Coalition Montréal. Dubois has been a councillor for the last eight years and currently serves on the city’s Executive Committee responsible for Public Security and Safety for citizens.

Like Beis, Dubois is committed to the creation of the 440 urban boulevard. When Côté introduced his candidates at a press conference in September, Dubois acknowledged that negotiations have been ongoing regarding the construction of the boulevard for the last 30 years as “traffic congestion is a major issue for citizens. There has been money set aside by the city of Montreal for studies and plans on the project.” Dubois also wants to improve on the city’s sports facilities as well as improving public transportation.

West Island Chamber of Commerce member Michale Labelle is running for mayor as part of Projet Montreal. Labelle is no stranger to politics. Growing up, his father was Pierrefonds’ mayor in the mid ’60s and Labelle worked for the city’s recreation program during the summer. Labelle himself has served as councilor before with three mandates.

Engineer and business owner Karim Metwalli’s first role as mayor for the borough would be “to revamp how activities and sports for children are priced, managed and offered in Pierrefonds. The new face on the political scene decided to run for the mayor’s chair when “I found out that two of the three candidates are ex-Union-Montréal party members, I knew the citizens deserved a better option and that I could provide that better option.”