Balarama Holness

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Balarama Holness
Bala H Web.jpg
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
CFL status:Non-Import
Player 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.

Contents

Family and early life

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

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

Provincial

2022 Quebec general election : Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Désirée McGraw 12,91850.46-12.52
Québec solidaire Élisabeth Labelle3,96715.49+3.65
Conservative Roy Eappen2,0878.15+6.64
Coalition Avenir Québec Geneviève Lemay1,8777.33-0.68
Bloc Montreal Balarama Holness 1,7016.64–
Parti Québécois Cloé Rose Jenneau1,3025.09-0.37
Green Alex Tyrrell 9563.73-2.94
Canadian Constantine Eliadis7232.82–
Marxist–Leninist Rachel Hoffman710.28-0.03
Total valid votes25,60298.72–
Total rejected ballots3321.28–
Turnout25,93455.76-0.38
Electors on the lists46,506––

Municipal

2017 Montreal municipal election results: Borough Mayor, Montreal-North
PartyCandidateTotal Votes% of total votes
Équipe Denis CoderreChristine Black11,86466%
Projet MontréalBalarama Holness6,03834%
Total17902100%
Source: CBC News, Quebec votes, Municipal 2017 Archived November 2, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
2021 Montreal municipal election : Mayor
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Projet Montréal Valérie Plante 217,98652.14+0.72
Ensemble Montréal Denis Coderre 158,75137.97-7.69
Mouvement Montréal Balarama Holness [9] 30,2357.23
Action MontréalGilbert Thibodeau4,3271.03+0.68
Independent Beverly Bernardo1,7600.42
Montréal 2021Luc Ménard1,6660.40
Independent Jean Duval1,1290.27
Independent Fang Hu1,0350.25
Independent Dimitri Mourkes8410.20
Independent Widler Jules3490.08
Total valid votes 418,079 98.19
Total rejected ballots 7,687 1.81 -0.59
Turnout 425,766 38.32 -4.15
Eligible voters1,111,100
Projet Montréal hold Swing +4.21
Source: Elections Montreal [10]


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References

  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. 1 2 3 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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