Worth another look

Voters in Pierrefonds/Roxboro will once again have current borough mayor Monique Worth as a candidate when they head to the polls Nov. 1 for the City of Montreal election, but there will also be a familiar face from Dollard des Ormeaux town hall on their ballot.

Dimitrios (Jim) Beis, a division head in Dollard’s sports and recreation department, is the sole new face on Worth’s Union Montreal slate, as the party revealed last week. He will be running for the Pierrefonds/Roxboro borough councillor east position, currently represented by Roger Trottier who is not seeking re-election. Under Quebec election regulations, an employee of one municipality can seek public office in another if they reside there.

Beis, 44, a Roxboro resident who grew up in Pierrefonds, said his background as a Dollard town employee will compliment his desire to serve citizens as a borough councillor in neighbouring Pierrefonds/Roxboro. He said working alongside municipal politicians in Roxboro and then Dollard over the past two decades helped convince him to seek public office. “I liked their style, the way they connected with the population,” he said, adding he gave notice to Union party officials that he was interested in running.

As a borough councillor, as opposed to a Montreal city councillor, Beis, if elected, would not be sitting on the Montreal agglomeration council or the city’s executive committee.

He said a borough councillor role better suits him that a city councillor one. “I am more of a grassroots individual,” he added. “I think more can be done at that level.”

Dollard town councillor Errol Johnson, who worked closely with Beis as he organized his annual West Island Blues Festival, said the political neophyte would be a great asset to Pierrefonds/Roxboro and doesn’t foresee any conflict of interest issues. “It may even work in our favour more than against us,” Johnson said of having a Dollard employee elected in a neighbouring municipality. “Someone who works for us can represent the City of Montreal. The two are separate. It won’t affect the work he does for us.”

Johnson gave a glowing recommendation of Beis as a municipal employee, saying he is very efficient and community minded.

Johnson pointed out he has served with fellow veteran Dollard town councillor Colette Gauthier who is an employee of the City of Dorval. “As a West Island community, we feel a part of each other,” Johnson said. “We have a lot in common.”

After Quebec forced municipal mergers, Dollard and Roxboro became a borough in the Montreal mega-city in 2002 but when Dollard residents successfully voted in a referendum to de-merge and Roxboro residents didn’t, the former town of about 6,000 was teamed with Pierrefonds and its almost 60,000 residents. Beis was an employee of the Town of Roxboro when it was merged with Dollard and then stayed with the latter when it was reconstituted in 2006.

Meanwhile, Worth, 65, mulled retiring from municipal politics but said she was persuaded to stay on by Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay. “If you have the energy, it doesn’t matter how old you are,” she said.

Worth said improving public transit is a key issue for her as is lobbying for a new urban boulevard in western Pierrefonds. “St. Charles, St. John’s and Sources are very congested. We need a north-south route to get traffic out (to Highway 40),” Worth said, adding the urban boulevard will be “public transit oriented. We can’t just change people’s minds and their way of living overnight,” she added, referring to the love affair many West Islanders have with their private vehicles.

Worth was first elected to Pierrefonds city council in 1990, replacing her late husband. She has headed her borough since the mergers two mandates ago. - Dimitrios (Jim) Beis - Christian G. Dubois - Monique Worth - Bertrand A. Ward - Catherine Clément-Talbot