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Balarama Holness

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Balarama Holness
No. 36
Position:Cornerback
Personal information
Born: (1983-07-20) July 20, 1983 (age 41)
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)

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.

Family and early life

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Holness 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

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While 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

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Provincial

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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

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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

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  1. ^ 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)…
  2. ^ a b c Bruemmer, René (March 4, 2023). "Balarama Holness is yearning for a Montreal that feels like home". Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  3. ^ "The Man Striving to Be the 'Canadian Obama'". The New York Times. July 10, 2020.
  4. ^ Cabrera, Holly (May 20, 2021). "Balarama Holness, activist and former CFL player, enters Montreal mayoral race". CBC. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  5. ^ Verity Stevenson (November 7, 2017). "How the Projet Montréal 'wave' spread across the city". CBC News. Archived from the original on April 21, 2018.
  6. ^ "20,000 sign petition for Montreal inquiry into systemic racism".
  7. ^ Neff, Kirk (November 21, 2020). "Filming Balarama Holness provides inspirational view of a man confronting systemic racism". W5. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  8. ^ @BalaramaHolness (May 20, 2021). "I'm officially running for Mayor of our city!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "Rapport officiel du recensement des votes" (PDF). City of Montreal. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
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