Updates from August, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • 11:16 on 2012/08/31 Permalink | Reply  

    François Cardinal has now interviewed the three main candidates for Quel Avenir about their intentions concerning Montreal.

    Jean Charest says the Plan Nord will be good for Montreal. (Is there anything it can’t do?)

    Pauline Marois promises to name a minister specifically for Montreal so watch out, Mayor Tremblay.

    François Legault, as already noted in this blog, wants Montreal to work harder for Quebec.

    There are more details, of course, and it’s worth reading all three pieces to get a sense of how the candidates feel about the city.

    Jean-François Dumas from Influence Communications, who closely watches media mentions, says Montreal has received much less attention than Quebec City during this campaign. Dumas notes in a very short item:
    - Gérald Tremblay invite les partis à présenter ce qu’ils prévoient pour Montréal.

    • Régis Labeaume dépose sa liste de demandes pour Québec.
     

    • Jack 18:31 on 2012/08/31 Permalink

      Wow nothing speaks more to Montreal impotence politically then those last two lines. If I was Tremblay I’d go to Quebec City walk up to the Assembly’s public gallery, scream and get arrested….that’s probably why I am not Mayor.

    • Kate 22:48 on 2012/08/31 Permalink

      Yup. Admittedly, Quebec City probably got some of that media attention because they’ve had an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, and we wouldn’t want that. But even so, yeah. We really do need somebody more dynamic at city hall.

  • 10:37 on 2012/08/31 Permalink | Reply  

    There are pieces today again about baseball and Montreal: a look back at the team and its ignominious end and about travelling to see farm teams play in Rochester and Syracuse. Neither article actually talks about bringing baseball back to town.

     

  • 10:22 on 2012/08/31 Permalink | Reply  

    Archives de Montréal has put up a modest photo set from August 25, 1969 on and around Ste-Catherine Street. Some of the views haven’t changed much (although the cut of the dresses and hair has), but there are shots of the fantastic neon signs the street used to have, as well as a shot of one of the sunken cafés that used to exist on the parterre of Place Ville-Marie, spaces long since covered over.

     

    • A. 00:42 on 2012/09/02 Permalink

      Never thought anything could possibly move me to quote Gaston Miron, but, decades later and thousands of miles away, into my head pops “la grande Ste. Catherine Street galope et claque / dans les mille et une nuits des néons”

    • Kate 11:03 on 2012/09/02 Permalink

      !!

  • 09:31 on 2012/08/31 Permalink | Reply  

    Montreal is the fine capital of Canada. It collected $186 million in fines in 2011, an average of $111 from each of us.

    Better watch out now that we know the city has a $700-million annual infrastructure shortfall it needs to meet. We’ll be ticketed for thinking about jaywalking.

     

    • Michel 09:55 on 2012/08/31 Permalink

      Explains that $270 ticket I got earlier this summer for leaving the dog park without immediately leashing my dog.

    • Kevin 11:08 on 2012/08/31 Permalink

      $270/dog? Man, the city could scoop up $10,000 a day just by hanging outside my backyard gate.

    • david m 01:08 on 2012/09/01 Permalink

      insanity. two things: 1) if you have the time to show up to court, always contest your tickets, the cops almost never show up and then ticket is tossed; 2) vote out tremblay (i suggest project montreal) – whereas his incompetent management of the city is only sometimes dangerous, like if you fall into a pothole or have the windows of your business smashed because you refused the entreaties of the local mafia types, his laissez faire laissez aller attitude to the police department is actually menacing.

      that said, i definitely agree with any ticket for people with cars (parking, speeding, turning, the standard vehicular manslaughter-inducing behaviors) or dogs. completely disagree with tickets for drinking booze in the streets or any sort of private noise violation though, obviously.

  • 09:25 on 2012/08/31 Permalink | Reply  

    Montreal plans to spend $4 billion on infrastructure from 2013 to 2015. Radio-Canada has a pie chart to show how the money will be used, the biggest slices going to fixing water mains and roads. But the city’s still short $700 million yearly to accomplish all this.

    Richard Bergeron thinks more money should be going to public transit and Louise Harel is worried about equality among the boroughs.

     

    • Chris 11:18 on 2012/09/01 Permalink

      Fixing roads is one things, but I just wish we’d stop building new ones.

  • 20:41 on 2012/08/30 Permalink | Reply  

    The vigorous gusts of wind that have been intermittently pummeling the metrop have torn part of the roof off the Maurice Richard Arena. It seems nobody was hurt. Another photo.

     

    • Blork 14:02 on 2012/08/31 Permalink

      According to a couple of reports (CBC and elsewhere) the parts of the roof that were blown off were already set to be replaced. As far as I know, the work had already started, and those parts were already partially removed. In other words — and most reports are skipping this — the wind merely did what the renovation team were about to do.

      That’s not to say it wasn’t dangerous, but it is worth noting.

    • Kate 15:26 on 2012/08/31 Permalink

      Thanks for the update, blork. CBC’s also saying that Viau metro station is closed at the moment because the entrance is so close to the arena.

  • 09:27 on 2012/08/30 Permalink | Reply  

    Voir’s Jerôme Lussier looks at the effect an expanded Bill 101 could have on small but vital businesses in Montreal.

    Another essay worth reading about Quebec, progressives and identity politics.

     

    • Jack 11:40 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      Ali Rahman is calling people out.You can not be a progressive and vote PQ.If you can rationalize voting for an ethnic political party by all means do, just admit it.

    • Kevin 12:45 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      Marois started chopping up her big, lift-wing tent when she introduced her charter of secularity. I will not be surprised to see QS bust 10% on voting day and get 5 seats.
      Of course, every single election prediction I have ever made is wrong, so…

    • jeather 12:48 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      Just because Marois calls her stuff secular doesn’t mean it is even on the same continent as secular.

      (Also, am I the only person who has worked in offices with certificates of francization where all the software is English, all the clients are in the US, and 75% or more of the internal communication is in English?)

    • ant6n 13:05 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      @jeather
      There was this comment below the first article posted:

      “”"
      Yvan Rousseau 29 août 2012 · 19h05

      M. Lussier,
      Étant moi-même employé dans une entreprise semblable à « NewTech » mais avec + de 50 employés, donc soumis à la loi 101 actuelle, je dois rectifier le tir sur certains points qui me semble fausser le discours ambiant sur les plans du Parti québécois dans la campagne actuelle. Notre entreprise est active dans le domaine du développement logiciel au niveau des très grandes entreprises canadiennes (plus de 500 employés).
      D’abord, comme NewTech, la plupart de nos clients sont situés hors Québec et la langue de travail est donc souvent l’anglais. En fait, depuis que nous avons reçu notre certificat de l’Office québécois de la langue française, les seuls changements que nous avons dû apporter sont les suivants:

      Fournir une version de Windows (et autres logiciels) et des claviers français aux employés de l’administration qui n’ont pas à traiter directement avec les clients anglophones.
      Recevoir l’Agent de l’OQLF de façon régulière (à chaque année, je crois), afin qu’il vérifie la situation.

      Donc, la langue utilisée par plus de 90% des employé(e)s dans leurs logiciels/conversations/échanges/documentations peuvent continuer à être presqu’exclusivement en anglais et il n’y a rien que l’OQLF peut faire pour empêcher cet état des choses. Les quelques employés qui ne parlent pas français de façon courante le comprennent maintenant parfaitement et l’OQLF n’a jamais demandé quoi que ce soit afin de les « franciser »: cela se fait naturellement par la force du nombre.
      ….
      “”"

    • Kate 19:34 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      What worries me more than anything is that the tribal drumbeat being led by Marois, Lisée and chums can lead to this sort of nonsense – xenophobes, instead of feeling sheepish about their small-mindedness, begin to feel legitimized.

    • Marc 22:54 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      3/5 people polled casually in the streets of the irrelevant city of Saguenay agreed with the nonsense their mayor said a few weeks ago. That plus the PQ’s racist proposals propelling them to #1 in the polls makes you lose faith in humanity.

    • Kevin 07:12 on 2012/08/31 Permalink

      @Kate
      That’s an old photo. It’s still a stupid statement, but at least it’s not recent.

      @Marc
      The PQ have not propelled to #1. They have not gained a single vote during the entire campaign: support is locked at 32%. It’s an anti-Liberal vote, nothing more.

    • steph 07:17 on 2012/08/31 Permalink

      Can we have the courage to call these people what they are: bigots. All the parties are catering to the language debate and it’s creating an environment of fear for businesses. Pardon me for scoffing when they claim to pretend to care about the economy with the same breath.

    • Kate 10:23 on 2012/08/31 Permalink

      Kevin: thanks, yes. The picture was posted to reddit but even there, people began to notice that it wasn’t recent.

  • 08:41 on 2012/08/30 Permalink | Reply  

    A man accused of making and planting fake bombs, then calling in bomb scares, has been arrested, but sounds more likely to be sent to a shrink than to jail.

     

  • 08:34 on 2012/08/30 Permalink | Reply  

    The Gazette is looking back at the Blue Bird fire in advance of the memorial planned Friday.

     

  • 20:44 on 2012/08/29 Permalink | Reply  

    A crowd of fans accompanied Lance Armstrong up Mount Royal Wednesday. He’s in town for the World Cancer Congress at the Palais des congrès this week.

     

  • 20:25 on 2012/08/29 Permalink | Reply  

    The city’s public consultation office has given the nod to the construction of a soccer centre on Papineau, on the edge of the Complexe environnemental Saint-Michel. There may well be some public need for this multi-million-dollar complex but it seems like more of this city’s philosophy that if it’s green you should build something “useful” on it: if they can get the first stage built, they’ll go on to add a full-size soccer pitch – with synthetic turf.

     

  • 20:23 on 2012/08/29 Permalink | Reply  

    Are we getting more wasps than usual this summer? There’s some evidence that we are, but I haven’t particularly noticed them.

     

    • Blork 22:57 on 2012/08/29 Permalink

      Purely anecdotal, but I think so. Left a terrace on evening last week because of the wasps, and that’s most def a first. (Plus I’ve seen more than usual elsewhere…)

    • Stefan 04:27 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      Personally they don’t bother me much, I just pay attention to when drinking (e.g. cover it) or biting into something sweet, when there is a wasp around. Eventually they go away. I think the worst thing is to panic and/or try to kill it, because when you wave your arms wildly they’ll defend themselves and try to sting.
      Interesting fact: wildlife often finds a much more diverse and non-hostile environment in cities than in today’s typical monocultural agricultures. As an example, city bees can harvest nectar from many different flowers and trees for almost the whole mild season, while in the countryside a single field will only bloom a few weeks at most.

    • Ian 05:48 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      I definitely saw wasps earlier than usual with the early warm weather, but more wasps than usual, not so much. I have definitely seen more spiders, even fairly large kinds that I don’t usually see inside.

    • dwgs 07:15 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      Haven’t noticed more wasps but there’s been a butterfly population explosion. Which is a great thing.

    • Ian 07:37 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      That started back in the early spring with a bumper crop of red admirals – again, because of the early, warm weather. I get a feeling insect life is enjoying this year’s warm season.

    • Bert 08:04 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      I would have to say yes. After 12 years in my place (Ste. Rose), for the first time, there are 3 or 4 nests starting up. Other than some very early morning buzzing around an open window, they have not been a nuisance.

    • Michel 08:27 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      Gotta agree with dwgs. No wasps this year–and I normally have to set out soda pop traps–but a whole hecka of a lot of butterflies. And bees.

    • Kate 08:57 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      I think we may be getting another wave of admirals, saw a couple again recently. Only saw a few wasps when I stopped by the 18th-century market for a bite and a bottle of spruce beer (which wasps apparently love).

      Ian, now I’m feeling paranoid about spiders. They’re bound to be big and sassy after a summer like this. (At some point late last summer, or very early fall, I came out of my place and got a spider in the face because it had spun a few lines of web across my front door overnight. Nightmarish.)

    • DB 09:03 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      Pauline Marois and François Legault seem to think so!

    • Kate 09:17 on 2012/08/30 Permalink

      Ha ha!!

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