10 questions with mayoral candidate Mlanie Joly

Montreal lawyer and sole female candidate for mayor, Mlanie Joly, talks to CBC's Daybreak about her passion for Montreal, why she's qualified for the joband why the city should look to New York to successfully combat corruption.

Q: What is the most pressing problem facing Montreal?

A: "The most important problem is corruption. Its the lack of ethics of elected officials. What weve done, our platform is the best platform. Why? Because we identified all the problems in Montreal and then we looked elsewhere in the world, other cities, and what they did to solve these problems.

"What Michael Bloomberg did in New York, he made sure everything would be transparent. All of the information the city has becomepublic. Therefore, itsbest to make sure theres not that culture of a person knowing another person."

Q: Do you think corruption still exists at city hall?

A: "I think so. I think theres a lack of transparency. For example, if youre an investor and you want to build in a certain borough and you basically have your mortgage on your land and you pay your architect and you want to present your project, you go before the city official and you dont know whetheryour project will be approved or not and you dont know based on which criterias and whats the delay for the approval.So, we need to change that.

"We need to clarify process, criteria that are clear and that are basically very rapid and thats the best way to ensure there is transparency. People will want to invest in Montreal because theyll have confidence in the system. Time is money and theyll reduce their risk also."

Q:People like Denis Coderresay you just dont have the experience running things. What have you actually run that indicates you could run the city of Montreal?

A: "Im a lawyer and Ive worked with national firms and also I used to run one of the companies of the Molson family [PR firm Cohn & Wolfe] and I did the entire restructuring and it went very well. I was in charge of the Montreal office and I was the youngest managing director in the entire network of 52 countries."

"We have a fantastic team. We have a clear game plan. I have a lot of will, a lot of integrity, a lot of vision and thats how we change things. If you look at big companies in the world, high tech companies, a lot of the people are my age."

Q: You've drawn criticism fromJean-Franois Lise, the minister responsible for Montreal, for speaking out too much about the Charter of Quebec Values. You said at a debate you would challenge it in court. Do you stand by that?

A:"If the population is in agreement with what the city council would do, yes. But its based on the will of the people. That being said, Im personally against it.

"I would certainly do a public consultation. I want to make sure that people, the liberty of choice of people, is well respected. I want to see what the project is and what will be done by the Quebec government, but its important that Quebec understands that Montreal has a different culture, has a uniqueness in terms of its culture and that we affirm ourselves.

"Thats the case culturally and thats the case also economically. All our measures weve presented are based on that."

Q: Would Montreal prosper in asovereign Quebec?

A: "I dont know. I think that Montreal must affirm itself culturally. Its important that we understand, that Quebec understands that Montreal is the metropolis. Montreal is half of Quebec and when Montreal doesnt go well, the whole of Quebec doesn't go well."