One of the candidates to replace Luc Ferrandez as the Borough Mayor for the Plateau-Mont Royal in Montreal wants to make the area more amenable to bicycles and to impose rent control for neighbourhood merchants.
The governing Projet Montreal chose Luc Rabouin as the party's candidate for an upcoming by-election.
He aims to build on the work done by Ferrandez over the past decade.
"I want the Plateau to be as bike-friendly as possible," said Rabouin.
"I want to continue the path on reduction and traffic-calming, greening the neighbourhood is very important, this is the first thing I have to do, but I also want to work on economic development."
As the former head of an economic development group in the Plateau who spent years working for a financial co-op, Rabouin said it's important to support neighbourhood merchants.
"First thing is we have to create a belt environment around the local shops that are attractive for people to walk around on St. Denis or Mont Royal or St. Laurent St. This is our job. Second thing is to regulate the private market of the owners because right now different big owners are buying the buildings and they double or triple the rent for the local merchants and they die," said Rabouin.
Rabouin, 51, is a long-time member of Projet Montreal, with a history as a community organizer and an environmental advocate.
Ferrandez quit politics in May, saying he felt like an "imposter" because of the lack of progress made on environmental issues.
His resignation came one week after a public consultation report showed citizens rejected the idea of banning through traffic across Mount Royal -- something Ferrandez had been working on long before he became involved in municipal politics.
Opposition party Ensemble Montreal plans to name its candidate for the borough mayor next week.
A by-election will be held on Oct. 6.
With reporting from Max Harrold
