Dorval, Pearson reject simultaneous votes

At odds with a suggestion by the provincial government, the City of Dorval and Lester B. Pearson School Board are refusing the idea of holding municipal elections jointly with school board elections.

"I really don't believe it can work," said the school board's chairperson Marcus Tabachnick, highlighting how even the voters' lists for each type of election do not match.

"I don't understand how it can work and it's never been explained to me," he said.

He also added it would be aggravating for the public to keep up with different simultaneous campaigns, imagining scenarios where a municipal elections candidate could knock on a potential voter's door right after the latter was visited by a school board commission candidate.

As for the City of Dorval, a resolution it passed recently speaking out against the idea was deposited at the Montreal agglomeration council's last monthly meeting.

"It's going to be too confusing," Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau told The Chronicle.

Rouleau said he imagined the idea was spurred in order to create more interest in the school board elections, which usually have a low voter turn-out. "In some cases, it's going to be confusing because you already have a mayor and a councillor to vote for (in municipal elections)," Rouleau said.

The Quebec English School Board Association, an umbrella organization that includes Pearson and others, has also rejected the idea of twinning the two different types of elections. "A small minority of electoral wards in our school boards match those of single municipalities," a brief submitted to the Education Ministry by the organization reads. "QESBA does not believe this move is the right answer to enhancing school board democracy; the issues are different and there is no indication that simple twinning will create more interest, awareness of educational issues."

Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys, which runs French-language public schools in the West Island, did not return phone calls to The Chronicle as of press time, nor did the provincial Ministry of Education.