JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1510 West
Among the four declared candidates running for mayor of Pointe Claire three are political veterans — incumbent Tim Thomas, former mayor John Belvedere and councillor Brent Cowan.
Belvedere looking for rematch
Belvedere, who officially launched his campaign last week, said it was an easy choice to throw his hat into the ring again after having served from 2017 to 2021.
“I absolutely loved what I was doing,” Belvedere said in an interview last week. “I care about my community. I believe I have the leadership and the vision to take the city to its next level.”
“I only lost by 60 votes,” Belvedere said, referring to his loss to Thomas in 2021, adding he feels he can swing the momentum in his favour this time around. “People have been asking me to run.”
Belvedere first ran for mayor in 2013, losing to Morris Trudeau. He won the 2017 election, securing a little more than 60 per cent of the vote, before losing re-election to Thomas in 2021.
He wants to shed the label of being pro-development — a point of contention for some residents who argued that the city was too quick to approve like high-rise residential complexes during his tenure.
“I’m not going out looking for development,” he said. “When it comes, we’ll adhere to the rules that are in place,” he added, explaining that the arrival of the REM stations had put pressure on municipalities to approve development projects.
Fairview Forest would be safe from development under his leadership, he said.
Another event that ruffled feathers for some voters was the 2018 decision to demolish the Pioneer Bar, with the site redeveloped into luxury condos. The original 119-year-old building was viewed as a fixture in the city’s historic village. However, the structure had been neglected and had been for sale for a decade before it was bought by a development firm. It was torn down in 2020.
Belvedere said this episode falsely painted him as anti-heritage preservation.
“I’m about heritage. I live in a 1920s house. I’ve maintained the character of my own house since day one.”
If elected, he would bring clarity to what he calls a “mishmash” of what the city defines as a heritage structure.
Thomas vying for second mandate
Incumbent Tim Thomas said his goal for re-election is to “protect and grow the beautiful city that is Pointe Claire, and grow it in an ecological and reasonable manner.”
He will face Belvedere for a third time. Thomas placed third in the 2017 election before winning in 2021. He ran on a platform that advocated for development to be slowed, placing heavy importance on environmental and heritage preservation.
His proudest achievements include the temporary freeze on development in Pointe Claire Village and Valois Village; his advocacy for environmental preservation, including Fairview Forest; and his government’s financial performance, which included keeping property tax increases on par with inflation.
“Despite considerable opposition, lots of good has been done,” said Thomas, referencing his often-challenging relationship with council.
Indeed, tensions have regularly been high between the mayor and the councillors over his term. Tensions boiled over during a meeting in December 2023, when a majority of councillors walked out. This event was followed with councillor Brent Cowan calling for Thomas’s resignation.
Thomas pointed to this tension as largely stemming from differing views on development.
“I don’t see the need to go as fast and as furious as they have wanted to. I think we should try and allow our infrastructure time to catch up, and we should not develop overly-quickly.”
He hopes the fall election will bring a few new faces to council.
“I can work with anybody who can share ideas,” he explained. “I can’t work with people who don’t tolerate other people’s ideas. And that’s been the case in the last four years.”
Cowan pitches himself as pragmatic option
Meanwhile, Cowan is positioning himself as the alternative to both Thomas and Belvedere.
“I served four years on council under John Belvedere and I served four years on council under Tim Thomas,” he said. “And I was contemplating my future a while ago. I said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to serve council under either of these two gentlemen again.’”
“I had an option, I either leave Pointe Claire politics or I run for mayor,” Cowan added. “And after thinking about it a lot and talking with people, I decided I’d make a run.”
He will focus on three objectives: Building cohesion between the mayor, council and administration, organizing a coherent city planning program and enacting a public participation policy to better inform residents on what roles they can play in contributing to municipal government policy.
When it comes to development, Cowan said labels don’t help. “People are going to say, ‘It’s all about development. Are you pro-development or against development?’ That’s not the issue at all. The development is happening whether we want it to or not.”
It’s important for the next mayor and council to “accept the realities of what’s happening” with regards to the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal and its 2026-2046 development plan, which recommends increased densification for new residential constructions. “We need to be able to accept the plan that has already been created and we need to be able to get the best deal for Pointe Claire under it,” he said.
As for working with council, Cowan would seek to find common ground with everybody.
“You can’t just impose, like the previous mayors tried to do – impose their own campaign view on everybody else. You have to pitch it, sell it and compromise.”
Municipal elections across Quebec are scheduled for Nov. 2.