Three sackings that followed the discovery of computer fraud in the city’s operations in 2008 have also led to huge bills for forensic accountants even before considering the legal bills that will come in.
Updates from April, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Voter cards should start arriving in the mail next week for the May 2 election. If you can, you must vote. Not enough of us get out and express our opinion in this simple but most crucial manner. Elections Canada is the site with all the info about getting registered, advance polls and so forth.
Too many of us give in to frustration and a feeling of apathy born from political impotence, but it’s futile to complain about the government if you didn’t get out and make your wishes known when you had a chance.
Here’s some food for thought: Which Canada will you vote for? summarizes the track record of the Harper government in terse comic panel style; a Le Devoir piece on the role of religious belief in the Conservative party, a role often downplayed in the media; even Arcade Fire is urging us to vote – for anyone but Harper – their message is terse but clear; West Island Tory candidate Larry Smith says it’s normal for more federal money to go to Conservative ridings (although a recent CROP poll says Smith hasn’t got a chance against the Liberal incumbent in Lac Saint-Louis riding).
Here’s an interesting interview of Jim Flaherty by Paul Wells, trying to find out where an unaccounted-for $11 billion comes from in their platform.
I also enjoyed this blog inquiry into who governments owe all that money to; it’s focused more on the UK but it applies to any country where “paying off the deficit” is put before the populace as the most pressing matter and serious duty imaginable.
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Marc
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Kate
I’m suddenly curious to know: when Smith loses his election, can he resume his senatorship or at that point is he regarded as not taking the job seriously enough?
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Kate
Marc: not everyone who comments here is an uber-lefty. Mostly I leave the debate to other folks who comment. One of these days I’ll have to install a fancier threaded discussion thing.
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walkerp
For those of you who don’t vote, there are plenty of other countries where this nuisance isn’t available or is purely a formality with no real reason to have to pay attention, such as Libya. I suggest you move there.
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Kate
Who was it said that even when there’s nobody you’re keen on voting for, there’s always something or somebody to vote against?
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A woman and two little kids were rescued from the Rivière des Prairies near the Île de la Visitation on Friday evening as a number of folks visiting the park looked on. They’re in critical condition; police are calling it a murder-suicide.
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There was a big drug bust on Friday after a multi-level police action codenamed Acabar: tons of ecstasy, coke and cannabis and heaps of cash were seized.
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Brossard’s ever-growing DIX30 has become a tourist destination, at least for folks coming from elsewhere in Quebec, while other south shore malls are in decline. Kind of sad that one of its big draws is indoor parking. Marie-Claude Lortie looks into the phenomenon and finds nothing too surprising.
It occurs to me, reading about the place, that the one thing it really needs is a casino. It’s clearly aspiring to a sort of Vegas sensibility.
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Marc
The DIX30 as a tourist trap? Seriously? Looks like every other mega big box farm I’ve seen elsewhere. And I’m sure that parking is free like every other suburban mall? No wonder downtown is suffering.
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Stefan
i guess it’s not only free indoor parking but also that it’s easy to find, quick to access from the highway and all the stores in one place – the temple where drivers worship.
how can downtown compete with that? they must offer parking outside the core and efficient transport to a pedestrian core – right now it’s searching for parking spaces, lots of traffic, little ‘human space’ and that makes it disagreeable for everybody (shoppers, commuters and city residents)
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Steve Quilliam
Not because a mall is popular somewhere in the suburb that downtown suffers. Montreal’s downtown isn’t suffering that much and is kind of doing pretty well. We can expect it to be doing even better in the near futur with all the new residents moving into their condos that are currently being built the hundreds (not to say the thousands).
There is simply more people in the greater Montreal and the ones that live relatively far (south shore) are likely to go to the Dix30. This type of mall will only hurt other not so trendy malls, that’s it. In 10 years another type of mall will come along and will hurt the Dix30 but not the center city. -
Odin
Steve, I live in Westmount but go occasionnally to off-island malls in winter (easier when you have a baby for parking, family amenities …), so maybe these malls are slightly hurting downtown ? :)
Anyhow, what I wanted to say is that the fact that Dix30 is a tourist destination speaks to how boring our city is. Seriously, a SUBURB MALL becoming a TOURIST DESTINATION! Am I the only one angered by this news?
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Kate
Odin, if you read the article you’ll see it’s chiefly a big draw for folks from elsewhere in Quebec. I doubt anyone’s jetting in from Europe to visit the DIX30.
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Steve Quilliam
Odin, you are perfectly entitled to go to off island malls. There is no problem with that. Malls are now part of our city (aka greater Montreal). Just like suburban people are often coming to the downtown core for all kinds of purposes. As a matter of fact there is much more suburban people coming to downtown than the other way around.
Anyhow, i think you are worrying too much about this article because the downtown core is doing well and will only improve in the next couple of years. And there is some room for suburban malls as well. If i we’re an ordinary 80′s type of mall somewhere in the suburb then i would worry a lot more about a newcomer but other than that there is nothing to worry for downtown Montreal.
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Voting for the sake of voting is a BAD thing. I know plenty of people who pay NO attention whatsoever to any news/current affairs because they can’t be bothered or are simply not interested; these folks should stay home on voting day. As for Larry Smith and that whole issue, he unfortunately spoke the truth. Telling people what they need to hear is an automatic career-ender for a politician. And it has nothing to do with specific parties – they’re all the same. In the 90′s Shawinigan (Chrétien’s district) got a new federal tax centre among many other goodies; wonder if that was just a coincidence? Now that I’ve come across as not being an über-leftist, I suppose y’all can tar & feather me; I don’t care. :P