MONTREAL—With fallout continuing from his dramatic resignation on Friday afternoon, former executive committee chair Michael Applebaum responded on Sunday to allegations that he quit after being passed over for the city’s top job.
“I’m a politician, we lose sometimes, we win sometimes,” said Applebaum.
According to Applebaum, who will continue on as mayor of Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-des-Grace, he told the Union Montreal caucus that if they didn’t accept a lower tax increase, they should choose rival candidate Richard Deschamps instead.
Deschamps was chosen and the party seems likely to push through a 3.3 per cent tax increase for 2013—Applebaum had proposed a cap at the rate of inflation: 2.2 per cent.
Responding to questions about a now famous report that he brandished as he resigned—the 2004 report revealed that Montreal overpaid by 30 to 40 per cent for road work—Applebaum continued to pound his former colleagues.
“They didn’t want to be questioned on the report,” Applebaum said of the city’s executive committee. “Corruption and collusion is one thing, but hiding reports is another thing and I couldn’t be part of that.”
After Mayor Gerald Tremblay’s resignation on Monday, mudslinging around the leaderless cabinet grew according to its former chair.
“Once the mayor left the dynamics around the executive committee changed, and I couldn’t accept what was happening with openness and these tax increases,” said Applebaum.
While he declined to comment on whether he would stay in the party, he did say that he was giving it “serious reflection.”
