Updates in Paris and Montreal

Quote after Quote in Paris
Earlier this month the French president's son supplied me with a quote of the day. Now he has announced he will not pursue a job his father used to have, and he has supplied me with another quote of the day:

If the question you are asking me is, ‘Did you talk to the president about [the government job]?’ No. Did I talk about that with my father? Yes.

In addition, the current holder of the job, who at 65 is being forced to retire (presumably to give the president's 23-year-old son a chance), provided an apt nepotism quotation from the seventeenth-century French playwright Pierre Corneille:

For souls nobly born, valor does not await the passing of years. (Aux âmes bien nées, la valeur n'attend point le nombre des années)

Scandal After Scandal in Montreal
Back in July I wrote a blog post about some scandals in Montreal's government. Now, according to a CBC article yesterday, the opposition leader has admitted to having taken $100,000 in cash from the same contractor who got a big contract for three times what it would have been had it been bid out.

In addition, according to another CBC article yesterday, the opposition leader, part of the party in power from 2005-2007, says that he tried to tell the mayor that kickbacks were rampant in the city.

“He leaned back in his chair and looked at me candidly,” said Labonté. “[He] said "you see, Benoît, in municipal politics… that's what it's all about.’” (en politique municipale à Montréal, c'est juste de ça)

According to an article in today's La Presse, the mayor denies saying this.

Labonté also "described how [political] parties get around the law by recycling corporate cash donations to individuals who would return the money through cheques. Labonté said the practice is used 'in all the parties, municipal and provincial,' and is still ongoing at Vision Montreal [the party in power]. 'Is there a mafia-like system that is running the city of Montreal? The answer is yes,' said Labonté."

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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