Gerald Tremblay, the mayor of Montreal and a big supporter of F1 in the city, has resigned amid a deepening corruption scandal. He has been in office for 11 years.
A public inquiry heard recently that Tremblay attended a meeting in which illegal donations for his party – Union Montreal – were discussed. Tremblay denies any wrongdoing.
Union Montreal allegedly collected illegal contributions from construction firms in return for municipal contracts.
This is all unrelated to the race, but it could effect F1 if his replacement is not as keen on the racing.
Of course if companies already with contracts wished to make donations that would be ok wouldn’t it?
Not “affect F1″ ?
Joe is diplomatically understating the scale of the alleged corruption, which stretches into almost every field of public works endeavour and with organised crime deeply involved throughout. If this all true (which looks as though it may be the case) it seems inconceivable that the race and/or the circuit will be completely unaffected.
Anyone who’s been to a grand prix weekend in Montreal knows how much the city embraces and revels in it. Even if the next mayor is opposed, it would be political suicide to abandon the race for the aforementioned reasons, and most importantly, the huge monetary benefits seen from the event the city and businesses would lose out on.
As a resident of Montreal I can’t think of anyone who would be opposed to the Grand Prix. Not only that but the GP is a huge economic boost to the city. Apparently merchants make more in the week of the GP than they do during the xmas shopping season. Not to mention the huge parties in all the bars and clubs. The city took an economic hit when we lost the race for one year. Any politician with an anti-GP agenda would have a hard time getting elected.
“… can’t think of anyone”? Really? Cast your mind back to last May and June when the GP was vilfied as wasteful, elitist and capitalist for starters. This from Quebec’s “leaders of tomorrow” (when the revolution trumps the will of the brain-washed electorate).
Attentive: These people were NOT students and they are no future leaders unless you count them as leaders of the squeegee kids we see trying to wash our windshields when you stop at lights.
David: Totally agree with your position. The event is fine. Montreal and for that matter – all of Quebec has always had massive corruption. No news here.
Careful, careful, you’ll be unanimously censored by the House of Commons if you keep saying things like that…