Tough

For the sixth time, bug-eyed Camillien Houde would be mayor of Montreal. There had been talk that a couple of unknowns would try to take his $10,000-a-year job away from him, but they decided to save the taxpayers' time and money. And so as filing time expired, Houde became last week the first Montreal mayor since 1898 to land the job without opposition.

It made Camillien feel good. While congratulatory wires and letters piled up on his desk, he lolled in his high-backed chair, chain-smoked, outlined his formula for political success. "I'm good-natured but quick-tempered," said he. "Also they tell me I am bighearted. I will never leave a man in a poor fix if I can help it. No one leaves my office without some hope. But I don't mince words. Sometimes I tell them it's their own damned fault they got into trouble in the first place. Then I try to help them."

For his new three-year term, Camillien Houde has no special plans. He knows his city and his city knows him. He fills about 1,900 official engagements a year, recently logged eleven in one night. Says Houde: "I am what TIME called me--a glorified handshaker, a hotel-greeter--no? I do not exactly get tired. I get--what you say? --stale. When I have to get up early, it seems the Devil himself contrives to keep me up late. But I can take it. I am tough like hell."

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