Montreal gets its next mayor Tuesday; five candidates for the interim job

MONTREAL – There are five candidates for Montreal’s mayoral hotseat.

A vote will be held Tuesday at city council to choose an interim mayor from among those candidates, who are all council members.

The winner will become Montreal’s third mayor in a year, after the last two resigned in scandal. There have also been acting mayors.

The winner won’t likely hold the job for long.

A municipal election is scheduled for November and none of the likely front-runners has put forward a candidacy for the interim job.

Today was the deadline to enter the race, before Quebec’s three-day holiday weekend.

The candidates are: Laurent Blanchard, Harout Chitilian, Jane Cowell-Poitras, Francois Croteau and Alan DeSousa.

They would replace Michael Applebaum, who resigned this week after being arrested on 14 criminal charges related to land deals.

Applebaum had won a similar vote at council last year.

He became the interim replacement for Gerald Tremblay, who resigned after being accused by an inquiry witness of ignoring illegal book-keeping within his political party.

Tremblay has always denied the allegation, while his accuser has seen his own credibility suffer after being forced to recant other parts of his testimony at the Charbonneau corruption inquiry.

Applebaum was the city’s first Anglo mayor in 100 years.