While Union Montreal candidate Susan Clarke’s chances of succeeding outgoing UM councillor Warren Allmand are good, Searle’s best shots were aimed not at her, but at Projet Montréal’s Cym Gomery — or, more specifically, at her father, the former chief investigator of the federal Liberal ‘sponsorship scandal,’ who decided early this past summer to join Projet Montréal as a campaign administrator.

“Ex- judge Gomery became a national figure for investigating fundraising corruption in political parties, and now he’s the honourary finance chairman for a political party whose leader has stated publicly that he would openly embrace politically-corrupt fundraising practices,” said Searle, who represented Loyola for several terms, but chose not to be on the ballot four years ago so he could instead run for mayor of the Borough of Côte des Neiges-NDG.

Searle pointed the finger at Projet Montréal leader, Richard Bergeron, “who made his press announcement a few weeks back that anonymous campaign cash contributions to election campaigns were wrong politically and morally, but that he was going to take them anyway, but only $25 maximum. Well, it’s rather like being a prostitute. You know, whether you’re a $25 prostitute or a $1,000 prostitute, the result is the same.”

Searle also accused Projet Montréal of not living up to its environmentally-friendly message by plastering posters all over, when the two leading parties, Union Montreal and Vision Montreal, have agreed not to. “It’s rather like saying that I only throw a little bit of litter on the street so I’m not a litterer. It’s the same thing,” he said.

Regarding the other Loyola candidates, Searle said Clarke’s background as a former school commissioner “should certainly train you for the low levels required for people in Gérald Tremblay’s fundamentally corrupt political party. Helping to run a school board is hardly a recommendation. But I don’t know her so she may be great.”

Although Searle said he was unfamiliar with Hugo Gallet, the candidate Vision Montreal chose to run in Loyola, he had no problem recalling George ‘Souvlaki’ Pentsos, a well-known NDG restauranteur who is running for Louise O’Sullivan’s Parti Montréal-Ville Marie. As it happens, Pentsos was recruited by Vision Montreal to run in Loyola in a previous election.

“Good old George, I know him well, but he’s never been in any way, shape or form involved in municipal affairs,” said Searle. Regardless of the election’s final outcome, Pentsos, whose business is located a stone’s throw from Concordia University’s Loyola Campus, is likely to have the support of students. “Vote Souvlaki George,” stated an unabashedly supportive headline over a recent story about him in the Link, the student newspaper.