Updates from October, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 23:57 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: election ( 82 )   

  Mayor Tremblay says he would increase property taxes if he’s re-elected, saying that it isn’t responsible to promise not to do so at this point.

  Richard Bergeron says a Louise Harel victory would result in four dead years of squabbling over technicalities of political power between the boroughs and the central city. Harel is following Bergeron’s lead in demanding to see the BAPE report on the Turcot project.

  Henry Aubin ponders why it’s not a great idea to have a strong sovereignist as mayor of Montreal.

   

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• 23:36 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply  

  Sovereignist groups are planning a noisy welcome for Prince Charles when he comes here next month, although they’re being pretty explicit that no violence is intended. Maybe it doesn’t occur to them that holding demonstrations accords the visit more importance than it actually has.

   

• 23:22 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply  

  Chris DeWolf writes about the lost camilliennes of Montreal. I always thought they were closed because a certain amount of sexual activity went on in them, and Jean Drapeau was not amused by that kind of thing. A Modernist he may have been but he was also a puritan – don’t forget, he was the mayor who, when he first came to power in 1954, damaged Mount Royal by cutting its underbrush to “discourage immorality.”

   

• 23:16 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: election ( 82 )   

  The city has added detailed electoral maps (in PDF form) to the official election site.

   

• 19:21 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: election ( 82 )   

  Richard Bergeron wants to extend the metro three stops westward of Snowdon into Montreal West. If this ever happens I hope they’d take the opportunity to rethink the dark, cramped Snowdon station, among the worst architecture in the system. He also says he’d reduce transit fares to stimulate use of public transit.

  Union Montreal honchos dissected, denounced and dogpiled on Vision Montreal’s platform today, saying it’s irresponsible to promise to freeze taxes and fees when there’s so much to be done.

   

• 19:06 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply  

  Hour has an overview of the Festival du nouveau cinéma and a survey of Quebec and Canadian works in the fest, plus other reviews and interviews; Voir gives a brief look at short films to see; Midnight Poutine chips in with a terse peek at a few picks; the Mirror’s picks.

   

• 10:13 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply  

  The Vancouver Canucks demolished the Canadiens last night 7-1, with Carey Price getting pulled mid third period. A columnist works out how much a Canadiens player costs per kilo.

   

• 10:09 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply  

  No plans have crystallized yet for the future use of the Édifice Saint-Sulpice, the Latin Quarter’s handsomest building, repurchased by Quebec from UQÀM two years ago.

   

• 10:05 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply  

  The Festival du Nouveau Cinéma opens today with a documentary about Michel Louvain. Radio-Canada notes some potential festival high points; today’s picks from Le Devoir. I’ll post more items on the festival later.

   

• 09:54 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: election ( 82 )   

  Louise Harel is doing voodoo math, promising a tax freeze in 2010 presumably as a lagniappe to voters if she’s elected, a promise that may be difficult to keep if her transformation of the city gets the go-ahead. Union Montreal’s critique is that she’s preoccupied with its administrative structure at the expense of everything else.

  A few more platform points are listed here, including a vow to pursue Expo 2020, Benoit Labonté’s pet project, a potential waste of huge consultancy dollars if Vision gets voted in. Some of Harel’s other points about public transit are blatantly nicked from Projet Montreal ideas.

  Also today, Linda Gyulai examines how taxes are spent to support municipal parties.

   

• 09:44 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply  

  Mayor Tremblay is refusing to consider any new money for the city’s blue-collar workers. The general vibe would seem to be that he’s entirely right and they can go fuck themselves. But is that reasonable? The cost of living continues to rise and it’s a safe assumption this trend will continue. Are the workers so evil to try to ensure that their incomes will keep pace, especially after two years without a contract? They may have a point that city hall has been too keen to spend big money on the private side rather than give a fair deal to its own workers.

   

• 09:38 on 2009/10/08 Permalink | Reply  

  As other commenters have noted, Google Street View launched in Canada yesterday, enabling us to see views of most of Montreal’s streets as they were photographed over several months earlier this year. It took awhile because all incidental faces and license plates had to be blurred out to meet our privacy laws. But one blog at least is all tordu out of shape because some of the street names are not given in French (although the blog entry is written in English, which reminds me of a very old Aislin cartoon: two men passing a wall with SPEAK FRENCH, ENGLISH DOGS on it, one remarking to the other: “Of course it’s difficult for outsiders to grasp the subtle complexities of the situation here in Quebec.”).

  Fagstein has an entry showing coverage maps.
  If you’re not sure how to get to Street View, go to Google Maps, plug in any address, and click on the resulting pin that appears on the map. Street View will be one of the options you’ll see.