Balarama Holness[1] (born July 20, 1983), also known as Steven Holness, is a politician and former Canadian football safety. He was originally signed by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He won a Grey Cup Championship with the Montreal Alouettes in 2010. He played CIS Football at Ottawa.
 | |
| No. 36 | |
|---|---|
| Position: | Cornerback |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | July 20, 1983 Montreal, Quebec |
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight: | 194 lb (88 kg) |
| Career information | |
| University: | Ottawa |
| Undrafted: | 2008 |
| Career history | |
| Stats at CFL.ca (archive) | |
Family and early life
editHolness was born in Montreal to a Québécois mother and a Jamaican father.[2] Andrew Michael Holness, the current Prime Minister of Jamaica is his first cousin. His mother's Hinduism resulted in the name Balarama and a childhood at an ashram in West Virginia.[2] Aged nine he moved to Boisbriand, where he was required to use the name "Steven",[2] which he maintained in his pro football career. His daughter is named after Marie-Joseph Angélique, a Portuguese-born black slave in New France.[3]
Political career
editWhile studying law at McGill University,[4] he ran for borough mayor of Montréal-Nord for Projet Montréal in the 2017 Montreal municipal election but lost to Christine Black.[5] After the 2017 election, Holness launched a petition calling for the city to hold a public consultation on systemic racism and discrimination.[6] Founder of a social justice lobby group "Montreal in Action," Holness was profiled on November 21, 2020, by the CTV Television Network as "an inspirational view of a man confronting systemic racism."[7]
On May 20, 2021, he announced his candidacy for mayor of Montreal in the 2021 Montreal municipal election[8] as a candidate of the Mouvement Montréal party. Holness finished in third place with 7.23% of votes and Mouvement Montréal failed to elect any of its candidates.
On June 7, 2022, Holness announced the creation of party Bloc Montreal, being a part of the 2022 Quebec general election. Bloc Montreal finished with only 0.2% of votes and it failed to elect any of its candidates, including Holness himself.
Electoral record
editProvincial
edit| 2022 Quebec general election: Notre-Dame-de-Grâce | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Désirée McGraw | 12,918 | 50.46 | -12.52 | ||||
| Québec solidaire | Élisabeth Labelle | 3,967 | 15.49 | +3.65 | ||||
| Conservative | Roy Eappen | 2,087 | 8.15 | +6.64 | ||||
| Coalition Avenir Québec | Geneviève Lemay | 1,877 | 7.33 | -0.68 | ||||
| Bloc Montreal | Balarama Holness | 1,701 | 6.64 | – | ||||
| Parti Québécois | Cloé Rose Jenneau | 1,302 | 5.09 | -0.37 | ||||
| Green | Alex Tyrrell | 956 | 3.73 | -2.94 | ||||
| Canadian | Constantine Eliadis | 723 | 2.82 | – | ||||
| Marxist–Leninist | Rachel Hoffman | 71 | 0.28 | -0.03 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 25,602 | 98.72 | – | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 332 | 1.28 | – | |||||
| Turnout | 25,934 | 55.76 | -0.38 | |||||
| Electors on the lists | 46,506 | – | – | |||||
Municipal
edit| 2017 Montreal municipal election results: Borough Mayor, Montreal-North | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Total Votes | % of total votes |
| Équipe Denis Coderre | Christine Black | 11,864 | 66% |
| Projet Montréal | Balarama Holness | 6,038 | 34% |
| Total | 17902 | 100% | |
| Source: CBC News, Quebec votes, Municipal 2017 Archived November 2, 2021, at the Wayback Machine | |||
| 2021 Montreal municipal election: Mayor | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Projet Montréal | Valérie Plante | 217,986 | 52.14 | +0.72 | ||||
| Ensemble Montréal | Denis Coderre | 158,751 | 37.97 | -7.69 | ||||
| Mouvement Montréal | Balarama Holness[9] | 30,235 | 7.23 | |||||
| Action Montréal | Gilbert Thibodeau | 4,327 | 1.03 | +0.68 | ||||
| Independent | Beverly Bernardo | 1,760 | 0.42 | |||||
| Montréal 2021 | Luc Ménard | 1,666 | 0.40 | |||||
| Independent | Jean Duval | 1,129 | 0.27 | |||||
| Independent | Fang Hu | 1,035 | 0.25 | |||||
| Independent | Dimitri Mourkes | 841 | 0.20 | |||||
| Independent | Widler Jules | 349 | 0.08 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 418,079 | 98.19 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 7,687 | 1.81 | -0.59 | |||||
| Turnout | 425,766 | 38.32 | -4.15 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 1,111,100 | |||||||
| Projet Montréal hold | Swing | +4.21 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Montreal[10] | ||||||||
References
edit- ^ Jason Magder (October 11, 2017). "Montreal elections: First-time candidates plan big changes for Montreal". Montreal Gazette. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018.
Known as Steven Holness when he played on the Montreal Alouettes from 2010 to 2011, Balarama Holness (his legal name)…
- ^ a b c Bruemmer, René (March 4, 2023). "Balarama Holness is yearning for a Montreal that feels like home". Retrieved September 13, 2024.
- ^ "The Man Striving to Be the 'Canadian Obama'". The New York Times. July 10, 2020.
- ^ Cabrera, Holly (May 20, 2021). "Balarama Holness, activist and former CFL player, enters Montreal mayoral race". CBC. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
- ^ Verity Stevenson (November 7, 2017). "How the Projet Montréal 'wave' spread across the city". CBC News. Archived from the original on April 21, 2018.
- ^ "20,000 sign petition for Montreal inquiry into systemic racism".
- ^ Neff, Kirk (November 21, 2020). "Filming Balarama Holness provides inspirational view of a man confronting systemic racism". W5. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
- ^ @BalaramaHolness (May 20, 2021). "I'm officially running for Mayor of our city!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Maltais, Isabelle (May 20, 2021). "Balarama Holness se lance dans la course à la mairie de Montréal". Radio-Canada (in French). Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ "Rapport officiel du recensement des votes" (PDF). City of Montreal. Retrieved November 10, 2021.