Press releases published by Projet Montréal

Projet Montréal leader and mayoral candidate Richard Bergeron is proud to present his Plateau Mont-Royal team of future municipal councillors. The team was nominated by party members to represent Projet Montréal in the upcoming November 1st municipal election. The nominations took place during an evening assembly reminiscent of the great moments in the history of Montreal’s political citizens’ movements. 

''This team has what it takes to build a cleaner, greener, healthier and more prosperous Montreal and provide the Plateau borough with a competent, hardworking and collaborative administration” said Bergeron, pointing to the candidates' diverse and accomplished backgrounds. “For the past four years improvement to the quality of life on the Plateau has practically crawled to a halt. With regard to certain aspects, notably with respect to traffic, the situation has even deteriorated. The Projet Montréal team will make a significant difference on the Plateau in terms of meeting the expectations and concerns expressed by its citizens for many years now. “

Nimâ Machouf, an epidemiologist and HIV specialist who teaches at the Université de Montréal, will be co-listed with Bergeron as the party's candidate for city-council in Jeanne-Mance district. Piper Huggins, Past-President of the Federal NDP - Quebec Section, will be the borough council candidate.

In DeLorimier, the popular and well respected borough councillor Josée Duplessis, who recently joined Projet Montréal after quitting the Tremblay team in disgust, will seek re-election as city councillor. Multimedia designer Carl Boileau, who won the district in the last election co-listed with Bergeron, is the party's candidate for borough council.

In Mile End, award-winning investigative journalist Alex Norris will be the candidate for city council, while community organizer Richard Ryan, who led the successful Mile End en Chantier public consultation, will be the Projet Montréal standard-bearer for the borough council seat.

Projet Montréal candidates came in first or second in every Plateau seat in the 2005 municipal elections, obtaining an average of 33% of the vote. Projet Montréal proved then, and will prove again soon to an even greater extent, that money does not have to determine all in politics. The ability of a team to embody the values and expectations of the population it seeks to represent municipally can effectively win out over the steamroller of an electoral machine that is fuelled by the millions spent by private companies and promoters.

Candidates’ Biographies

Carl Boileau has lived in the Plateau since childhood and has witnessed the evolution of the borough. Founding Co-ordinator of Projet Montréal in the Plateau, Mr Boileau, co-listed with Richard Bergeron, leader of Projet Montréal, ran in the 2005 elections winning the DeLorimier City Councillor seat for the party. In 2006, he interned with the Groupe Les Verts in Paris’ City Hall. An active blogger and a webmaster by training, Mr Boileau administers the Voix de gauche website. Holding a degree in multimedia, he makes a living in this area. Carl Boileau is running for Borough Councillor in DeLorimier district.

Josée Duplessis is a sociologist by training and ran a consultation firm dedicated to improving the environmental practices of Québec municipalities. A devout environmentalist and cyclist to the core, she counts the following among her achievements: the first Ressourcerie du Québec, an environmental portrait of the Island of Montreal, and a strategic plan on the transport of goods for the Metropolitan Region. Mme Duplessis taught a course on the social and environmental impact of industries at École de technologie supérieure and started a theatrical company which made more than 150,000 children aware of daily environmental practices. She was equally the Vice President of the Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal. A citizen of the Plateau for 20 years and Borough Councillor since 2005, Mme Duplessis was involved with numerous issues, notably the preservation of Fire Station 26, the weekly compost (brown bin) collection serving 3,000 people, and the development of social housing. Josée Duplessis is running for City Councillor in DeLorimier district.

Piper Huggins has lived on the Plateau Mont-Royal for almost 20 years with her spouse and two children. Ms Huggins is passionate about social justice and democratic participation.  She worked for the new Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) during almost ten years as political organizer and campaign director responsible for Québec. She was subsequently elected to the position of President of the Quebec Section of the Federal NDP (2006-2008). Ms Huggins currently works for the Centre for Research and Teaching on Women at McGill University. Her educational background is in Political Economics which she studied at Concordia University. Ms Huggins is a ‘City Girl’ who adores Montreal, the life of its neighbourhoods, its rich history and culture, and its enormous potential. Piper Huggins is running for the position of Borough Councillor for the Jeanne-Mance District.

Nimâ Machouf holds a Doctorate in Public Health from Université de Montréal and has worked as an epidemiologist researcher for 10 years at the Actuel medical clinic while teaching at Université de Montréal. Her fields of expertise are AIDS, international health, and access to care for disadvantaged populations. Her social involvement started in the Iranian community of Montreal, where she is well known and always active. Mme Machouf was a co-founding member of Maison d’Iran and of Association des Femmes Iraniennes de Montréal. She was a member of the administrative council of Médecins du Monde Canada for eight years. Mme Machouf ran under the Projet Montréal banner as a candidate for the Mayor of Pierrefonds during the 2005 election. She has now returned to the borough of her childhood, Plateau-Mont-Royal. Nimâ Machouf is running for City Councillor in Jeanne-Mance district. She will be co-listed with the leader of Projet Montréal, Richard Bergeron.

An award-winning investigative journalist, researcher and translator, Alex Norris has lived in or near Mile End for more than 20 years. As a news reporter, he covered everything from city politics to foreign affairs. He also researched organized crime, urban sprawl and intercultural relations. Mr Norris has taught investigative journalism in Africa and Latin America, and won the prestigious Prix Judith-Jasmin in 2003 for his exposé on Quebec's video lottery industry. He is also the holder of a National Newspaper Award and a Canadian Association of Journalists investigative-journalism prize. Mr Norris has been active in his community on green-space, traffic and visual-pollution issues. He is fluently bilingual and also speaks Portuguese and Spanish. Mr Norris and his wife are raising two sons on the Plateau. Alex Norris is running for City Councillor in Mile End district.

Richard Ryan is a community organiser and worked for 12 years within several community groups dealing with immigration and intercultural relations before moving into the field of healthcare where he has worked for the past seven years. Mr Ryan has lived in Mile End district for 20 years. He is involved at different levels in his borough concentrating his efforts these past two years in his work with the Comité des citoyens du Mile End. He is part of the organizing team that established the Citizen Process on the Revitalization of the St-Viateur East Sector (the industrial sector of Mile End). This process mobilized hundreds of Mile End citizens to get involved in planning the future development of this area. Father of an eight year-old girl, Mr Ryan is also involved at Lambert-Closse school. Richard Ryan is running for Borough Councillor in Mile End district.