Balarama Holness

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.

Balarama Holness

No. 36
Position:	Cornerback
Personal information
Born:	(1983-07-20) July 20, 1983 (age 42) Montreal, Quebec
Height:	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight:	194 lb (88 kg)
Career information
University:	Ottawa
NFL draft:	2008: undrafted
Career history
Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2008–2009) Montreal Alouettes (2010–2011)
Career highlights and awards
Grey Cup champion (2010)
Stats at CFL.ca (archive)

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

v t e 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

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

v t e 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]