But though recent reports have implied that Trent's return to public life is a done deal, he carefully maintains that he has yet to make up his mind and is currently testing the waters by speaking to members of the Westmount community. He won't run for mayor, he says, unless he has a solid group of councillors in place to run with him.
A mayor is only as good as his council," Trent said this week. "I'm in the process of building a team. I'll probably be making a formal announcement in September — but I'm reserving the right to say no until I'm confident that good people will be running with me."
Trent's announcement that he may run for mayor came shortly after last week's press conference at city hall when current Mayor Karin Marks said she will not seek re-election in November. With Westmount's city councillors currently divided on several issues — primarily the controversial arena/pool project — one of Trent's first priorities would be to restore solidarity within the ranks on that issue.
"This is no mere comfort station we're building here," he said of the huge arena project. "We're looking at $35 million — and the other unknown is how much the (provincial government) grant will be."
Despite the recent controversy raised by Councillor Patrick Martin's suggestion of building the arena on the Westmount Athletic Grounds behind Westmount High School, Trent maintains that he would not take a position on what is sure to be a key election issue.
"I'd be there to listen, get all council on side, and make a decision," he said. "The biggest project in Westmount's history should not be the most divisive project in Westmount's history."
One of Trent's primary motivations for considering a political comeback is the book on municipal mergers he is currently writing. "I spent the past three years living like a monk, writing this book — doing a fair amount of research — and it allowed me to reflect," he says. "I've changed my views in certain areas."
The book, whose title Trent is not ready to divulge, is an academic, peer-reviewed work to be published in both English and French by McGill-Queen's Press sometime next year. For this project, Trent has spent long hours in his makeshift study in his basement, surrounded by shelves of carefully catalogued archives consisting of press clippings and other works.
From it emerged some new ideas, but on the whole, he says, his extensive research has only strengthened his long-held belief that municipal mergers don't work. This can be seen in mega-Montreal, he says, simply by the fact that several problems that were supposed to be addressed by municipal mergers still exist — among them urban sprawl transport and taxation
"One of the main messages in this book is that problems we are now living with were problems eight years ago. Nothing has changed."
