View from the Voting Booth / 1
Westmounters will go to the polls with lots of choices
By Wanda Potrykus
October 24, 2025
Municipal election fever has hit Westmount. For the first time in living memory — well, at least what seems like a long time — Westmount voters have a choice of three accomplished mayoralty candidates. Plus, in all except one ward where the incumbent councillor was acclaimed, there is also a choice of two, three or more candidates for each of the remaining seven district councillor positions.
People are stopping friends and acquaintances in the streets and dog parks to discuss the election. Opinions go back and forth. Lamp post and garden posters abound around the city in a myriad of colours and designs – some unusual, others quite standard in terms of layouts for political posters. Glossy flyers, brochures, and even a newsprint version to accommodate lots of photos are filling the apartment lobbies and letter boxes. Some pieces are crammed with masses of information, while others are nothing more than a name and photo on a postcard with a QR code to scan for more details.
This tells us a lot about the age and potential demographics of some of the candidates: the younger ones believe everyone has a cell phone, access to the internet at home, and knows how QR codes work. Heads-up… no, not yet everyone does, or is familiar with QR codes, and even if they know about them — or have at least heard of them — they aren’t adept at getting their information that way.
Westmount voters have a choice of three accomplished mayoralty candidates… there is also a choice of two, three or more candidates for each of the remaining seven district councillor positions.
Still the information is there to be discovered online even if you have to ask a friend or go the library to do it, and is, and has been available, in an ongoing public meetings held in the homes of neighbours, or in apartment lobbies, at senior homes, at the Contactivity Senior Centre, or the Greene Avenue Centre, and at Victoria Hall. Also, as I have noted on the very streets themselves, should you happen to be at home or walking by when one or other of the candidates is going canvassing door to door, or if you find them chatting to passersby in one of Westmount’s bigger parks.
For brevity, this article will comment on the campaigns of Westmount’s three Mayoralty candidates. Not because the prospective councillors don’t matter, they certainly do, as they are important local representatives in each of the city’s wards, but there are so many standing for election (21 options in total) with so much to say, it isn’t feasible in one article to describe each of them enough to do them justice.
Why all this excitement?
The fact is, in 2025, the City of Westmount is sadly divided, and many residents are more than a little irked. The recent Council, headed by incumbent Mayor Christina Smith, who is not standing for re-election, has, however good a job she has done — and hasn’t done — on some fronts of great concern to the majority of Westmounters, not left office without causing substantial dissent and grumbling among constituents.
Foremost among these is the last-minute, rushed passage of the PPU (Programme particulier d’urbanisme) for the hotly debated SE sector, District 8 of the city, adjoining the Montreal-Ville-Marie borough. Last-minute petitions were circulated, letters written, fervent pleas were voiced in council meetings, all to no avail. On September 21, 2025, the deed was done, and the plan was sealed, stamped, and sent to the City of Montreal and the province for rubber-stamping.
This left a substantial number of residents who are not happy, although we were frequently advised that untold numbers of residents are quite content with it; except, like a lot of claims from the outgoing council, not too much hard evidence was provided to substantiate this assertion, certainly in terms of numbers at least.
Yet 1,000+ people put their names to the ‘against’ petition, claiming it wasn’t quite right and needed more time, and asking for it to be remanded until after this November’s municipal election. Even one of the councillors, who ultimately voted in favour of it, agreed it wasn’t complete and needed more work, yet weirdly still voted to pass it regardless. Why? opponents asked.
‘The recent Council…has… not left office without causing substantial dissent and grumbling among constituents. Foremost among these is the last-minute, rushed passage of the PPU (Programme particulier d’urbanisme) for the hotly debated SE sector of the city…’
No satisfactory answer was forthcoming. Interestingly enough, this councillor standing for re-election didn’t mention that in his long list of accomplishments presented at the interminable councillor debate held in Victoria Hall last week. Nevertheless, what we do know is that property developers, who lobbied through ‘for’ ads in the local paper, are happy, getting much, if not all, of what they wanted. Pretty much carte blanche, it seems.
The mayor and council continued to assure citizens that even when passed changes could be made later to the PPU to ‘refine’ it as Councillor Peart says; but unfortunately, as with a lot of communication, or perhaps one should say, ‘heavily nuanced-communication’ from the outgoing mayor and council, it wasn’t quite ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’.
Yes, it turns out one can ‘negotiate’ with the developers once they present their plans, but if one or more of them come with plans that exactly match the specifications outlined and approved in the present PPU, Westmount council and its residents no longer have the ability to say: ‘No, we don’t want this’. This was precisely the reason Premier Legault, the CAQ, and the City of Montreal passed this form of urban planning law — the so-called NIMBY law — so nothing could be nixed at a local referendum.
Will that happen now?
Only time will tell; however, the main point is that Westmounters are not happy. Not only about this egregious example of blatantly ignoring citizens’ wishes, but for a myriad of other reasons, with lack of trust and opacity at City Hall ranking high on the list.
It includes situations such as: the ongoing noisy, and frightening to some, protests on Greene Avenue, de Maisonnueve, and in-front of Westmount Square; the decrepit state of the roads and sidewalks; at the lack of affordable housing for families; the appalling state of vegetation and lack of ground cover in Westmount’s namesake and other parks, which under this council seem to be comprised of less and less of green spaces and have become more and more a collection of concrete walking paths; the promised remediation and naturalization of the lagoon in Westmount park; the lack of an indoor pool (also promised by the outgoing mayor and council but no progress was made on that, except a pie-in-the-sky drawing on the SE sector plan (i.e. there are no funding plans, no infrastructure plans, no provisional costings).
‘… the main point is that Westmounters are not happy. Not only about this egregious example [PPU] of blatantly ignoring citizens’ wishes, but for a myriad of other reasons, with lack of trust and opacity at City Hall ranking high on the list.’
With all the other needs and urgencies our city is facing, the pool, the lagoon and the dilapidated state of the working greenhouses will, no doubt, remain on the ever-growing list of “potential things to do someday in the far-off future…maybe”.
These are only some of the priorities and grievances communicated by voters to the three municipal mayoralty candidates and picked up upon and mentioned by many of the councillor candidates.
If you’re still undecided as to who to vote for, View from the Voting Booth – Part 2 will offer a rundown of some of what our three Mayoralty candidates are offering.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of its author and do not reflect the opinions of WestmountMag.ca, its publishers or editors.
Feature image: Élections Québec
Other articles by Wanda Potrykus
November 11, 2025" />
Tallis Scholars in Montreal" />
of your life and career" />
through changing eras" />
Mediterranean red snapper" />
an inverted light" />
mayor of Westmount" />
Consider resale when buying" />
in movement and music" />
season for the OPCM" />
latest novel Black Creek" />
Autumn Spice Bundt Cake" />
of Stanley Kubrick" />
Negotiating retail" />
potential for fulfillment?" />
Lynne Casgrain – Mayor" />
Kathleen Kez – District 8" />
Jean-François Emmanuel – District 2" />
James Murphy – District 5" />
Gurveen K. Chadha – District 4" />
I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to Wanda Potrykus for her excellent two-part series, View from the Voting Booth, that provides excellent and timely insights and solid political analysis concerning the red-hot municipal election campaign in Westmount. Wanda’s eye for detail and her observations, particularly the way the campaigns are capturing the attention of Westmount residents and leading to meaningful conversations. This is critical and based on her chronicling the campaigns, we can expect a fairly respectable voter turnout. Top marks!
Irwin Rapoport
Excellent perhaps… but with a clear bias. Some of us want action in the Southeast corner not 10 more years of discussion.
Are you concerned that, as Westmounters, we are sleepwalking our way into paying much higher municipal taxes? If so, please get out and vote!
Do you agree that just looking at each other to see who’s going to open their pocketbook wider or sacrifice some municipal services or quality of life is not the best solution?
And do you feel that robust engagement and collaboration with thought leaders and empowered agencies located beyond Westmount’s City Limits may, in fact, be the catalyst for effective, fiscally efficient shared solutions to Westmount’s substantial infrastructure, humanitarian and security challenges?
Vote for Lynne Casgrain – a highly respected, fully bilingual lawyer and negotiator with public service in her DNA.
The only candidate with immediate name recognition, respect and trust in federal, provincial and Montreal agglomeration decision-making circles.
The only candidate surrounded and inspired by generations of family members tackling and moving the needle on the toughest social change and economic issues.
The only candidate with decades of experience as an ombudsman listening to people with differing points of view and forging fair and workable solutions.
Why would you vote for less than the best?