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Étienne Brunet, spokesperson for borough mayor Russell Copeman, called this an election-year stunt. The borough’s blue collar workers have been out filling potholes with a special machine at a normal rate, but the best way to repair these issues is to repave the streets — and that has been a focus of the administration.

“Last year, we did 21 kilometres of streets and this year we will be doing just about 30 kilometres,” said Brunet, noting sidewalks are repaired as needed. “In this mandate only, we will have done more than one third of the streets in the borough. That’s full repaving.”

The borough invested $15 million in road repairs in 2016 and another $20 million will be spent in 2017, he said.

Noah Sidel, a Connaught Ave. resident, said he is not impressed with Searle’s “transparent” attempt to attract votes. Potholes are a city-wide issue rather than just a Loyola problem, he said. Sidel remembers Searle saying he would fix Fielding Ave. during his 2013 re-election campaign, but, he said, that hasn’t happened.

“As our city councillor, he is supposed to be representing us through the duration of his mandate, not only six months away from an election,” Sidel said. “The first time he is going out into the street with white paint to circle potholes strangely coincides with the lead-up to an election for which he is trying to get some good publicity after years of terrible publicity.”