A dead man was found in Lafontaine park Thursday afternoon; cops say it looks suspicious but we don’t know anything else yet.
Updates from August, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Regular reader @Jack linked this editorial by Ariane Krol in a comment to an earlier thread about the management of Jean-Talon market, but I’m also putting it up in a new post because it’s a good, terse critique of an error of judgement the market has made by harassing a legitimate farmer over a trivial matter.
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Jean Charest is blandishing Montreal with half a billion imaginary dollars, mostly intended toward modernizing (?) our metro stations, although he stops short of promising us the blue line extension to Anjou.
In the Radio-Canada piece there’s also a list of things Charest would help pay for toward the 375th anniversary celebrations in 2017. Two of them stick out:
• Construction d’un nouveau pavillon de verre au Jardin botanique
• Agrandissement de l’InsectariumAuthorities appear to regard the botanical gardens as an empty space ripe for development. In recent years we’ve seen new aménagements built, ranging from the “tree house” building to the First Nations pavilion to a large seed bank building behind the greenhouses. Each of these things has some worthy justification but each one eats up more of the finite green space.
At the same time, the cost of visiting the gardens has skyrocketed. It’s $17.75 for an adult to go in there now, at least double what it was when I used to bike over from the Plateau five years ago.
There should seriously be a moratorium on paving even another square foot of those gardens, and some thought should go into whether it’s beneficial to peg the admission fee too high for many people to consider a visit.
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Tux
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Anto
Just as a sidenote, the gardens are free (read, there’s nobody at the door) if you get in before 9 AM or after 6 PM (except for the special events in the evening, I guess).
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Stefan
I always went into the botanical garden through the hole under the fence from the parking lot, which is large enough. $17.75 is absolutely crazy. This great green space should be provided for free (let them charge for the insectarium). And you can’t even picknick on the grass.
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david m
is that hole still there? honestly, some people need to take another look at the cost there and decide whether the level of subsidy to the institution might decrease with a lower price point for admission. aside from the odd tour group, when i’ve been there, botanical has been totally empty.
as for charest (and the election), i just can’t get over how tone deaf solidaire is. they’re running a provincial campaign instead of running as montreal’s party, which they are and which is the only place they have a hope of winning seats. seriously, forget this bullshit about the oqlf and that, and get to trams, trees, bikes, zoning, direct democracy, whatever. i mean, seriously, when the pq is taking the montreal set to school on montreal politics, it’s just embarrassing. and not to be weird, but i do blame françoise and the people around her, they’re just out to lunch.
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Kate
I wouldn’t consider the botanical gardens a hole. They’re one of the biggest in the world although, it has to be admitted, not a patch on Kew.
Solidaire’s new plan to double the size of the OQLF today has put me off my intention to vote for the local guy, who seems like a decent fellow. I am almost at a loss now:
- PLQ – not a chance, not after the provocation of the chronic corruption, the Charest smugness vis-à-vis anglos, the refusal to grapple with the issues brought up by the student unrest, constantly misrepresenting what it was about. Nope. I’d rather draw a dick on my ballot than vote for the Liberals under Charest.
- PQ – clearly the problem for them is that there aren’t enough Québécois de souche. No amount of effort will turn me into one of those. I am simply not the person the PQ is talking to. Also, I’ve distrusted them forever – not from the stock anglo fear of separatism but because of their disdain for Montreal. Plus my local candidate is drinking the Kool-Aid something awful, trying to defend Jacques Parizeau’s “money and the ethnic vote” comment the last I saw (bizarre, coming from a black candidate). (He since deleted this statement.)
- CAQ – they’re avowedly rightish, and I am not, I don’t like how Legault flip-flops on the nationalism stuff, and I kind of wish Jacques Duchesneau had stayed out of electoral politics and remained above it all as a critic. I don’t much like CAQ’s plans for Montreal. I haven’t troubled to find out anything about the local candidate.
- QS – what little I know of Andrés Fontecilla is positive, he works for the community and he hasn’t said anything stupid that I know of. And I kind of like Amir Khadir. They’re lefty, which I like. But @david m is right, they’re ignoring the city’s real needs and returning to the old song about making sure everything here is French French French. Doesn’t matter, maybe, since they’ll be lucky to get 2 or 3 seats, but it’s still a deterrent to me – this city is not a monoculture, never has been, never will be. Once again, I’m not the person they’re talking to.
À QUAND UN PARTI NPD QUÉBÉCOIS HOSTIE?
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Kid A
Kate, you may be interested in this:
http://o.canada.com/2012/08/14/ndp-not-ruling-out-possible-creation-of-quebec-wing/
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jeather
I’ve given up and will throw my vote to the guaranteed not to win Green party. As leftish parties go, they’re the only ones that haven’t (yet) actively gone anti-anglo or anti-Montreal (in part because they haven’t really said anything at all). I don’t want rightish, so there’s not much left.
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dwgs
Kate, I believe the hole that david m. refers to is the one that stefan uses to avoid the entry fee. A literal hole rather than a figurative one.
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Kate
oh ah. tee hee.
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Ian
Any promises form QS are just hot air, they’ll be lucky to get three seats. I’ll still vote for them, OQLF nonsense notwithstanding as they will rattle some lefty sabres in the Assembly and that’s all I really expect or want from them.
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Jack
With Ian
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Ian
I do appreciate the heads-up though, I went to their Book of Faces page and razzed them some. It’s a pretty punk move for a party that was very seriously making the pretense of inclusive sovereignty.
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Bill Binns
Even with all these parties to choose from you still end up with a very American situation – “vote for the guy you hate the least”. I, unfortunately cannot yet vote but I am on the verge of convincing my wife to vote PLQ with CAQ as a fallback position. I was a big fan of this guy Duchesneau before he declared. It would be interesting to see what an honest man would do in that position and wether he would be able to remain honest.
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Ian
As one of my friends pointed out on the Book of Faces, choosing a politician to support is much like choosing the STD that’s just right for you.
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Jo Walton
The Amis du Jardin Botanique card is $50 for a year, which is much better value than $17.75 a visit, even if you only go once a season. It also means you can go get wafted straight through with no lineup, and it gives you one free visit to the Biodome. Well worth it.
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ant6n
Maybe QS are trying to get PQ voters, which may make sense if you look at their polling numbers. I collected from threehundredeight.com all ridings where they have 10% or more, and sorted them according to support for QS (note that these estimates are very approximate):
PLQ, PQ, CAQ, QS
13, 30, 05, 50: Mercier
12, 36, 07, 43: Gouin
18, 47, 09, 22: St-Marie-St-Jacques
32, 34, 09, 20: Laurier-Dorion
13, 51, 14, 18: Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
43, 27, 07, 18: Outremont
55, 15, 07, 13: NDG
39, 36, 08, 12: Hull
20, 51, 13, 12: Rosemont
33, 41, 11, 11: Taschereau
35, 39, 13, 10: St-Henri-St-AnneYou can see that in the 4/5 ridings with the most support, they are running against the PQ. So any PQ voter they’d sway to QS would mean two spots ahead relative to the PQ.
On the other hand, whatever they’re doing right now won’t create another Orange Wave. -
cheese
I LOVE this comment from @Kate: “À QUAND UN PARTI NPD QUÉBÉCOIS HOSTIE?”
A number of people seem to be asking this very question, including me (though mine is less fluent fench). I also have to agree on the state of the parties. Here is what I’m thinking:
PLQ – Charest blew it, arrogant, corrupt, no way. Also his plans for Montreal are not forward thinking or practical. Good thing they have almost no chance of being implemented.
PQ – probably the worst option in my estimation. Completely ignoring Montreal, Pauline is awful and also seems to be corrupt by proxy (her husband). She flip-flopped on the student strikes and seem to focus all energy on the lowest common denominator. Their statements about asking for more Federal money are lame, and when the answer is “no” will be used to push for separation. I read that they have already stated this explicitly, how eye-rollingly weak.
CAQ – I had some hope for these guys, though right wing they almost wrap around and become left wing (libertarian-ish) in some ways. But the zenophibia and anti-immigration are hard to overlook. They seem even worse in this regard than the PQ. I don’t like their banlieu focused plans for Montreal either. It was a boon for their reputation that Jacques Duchesneau decided to join but not sure how that will play out for them in reality, it may tarnish his shine more than it helps the CAQ.
QS – Amir Khan seems like a smart and honest guy with an agenda. That’s good for a politician (and rare). I don’t share all of his agenda but some is good. Too bad about the OQLF thing and I’m not a sovereignist though I certainly see some good idealogical reasons why people are. QS seems like the least terrible option partially because they have almost no chance of winning more than a few seats. Khan will likley win here in Mercier.
In places like England the representative for a riding must actually live there, as in have a functioning residence there. When they are elected to parliment of course they are often in London but they must keep that (or another) residence. How can we expect someone that does not even live in a particular area to represent its best interests? How often will they visit? How can they asses the needs and priorities?
Depending on any encouraging things QS have to say prior to the election I may spoil my ballot if there is no green party option here.
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Ian
While I largely agree with your analysis, it’s not “Khan” but “Khadir”.
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Ian
The NDP will run in the next provincial election:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/elections/ndp-will-run-quebec-party-in-next-provincial-election-mulcair/article4486345/ -
cheese
@Ian, oops, I’m not getting enough sleep lately it seems. Not sure where I got Khan from exactly… cheers.
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Josh
Kate, Paul Wells just made a point on Twitter: A good number of the NDP’s Quebec caucus hold QS membership cards. What point would there be in starting a provincial NDP to just siphon away some of that support?
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Ian
That would be surprising for 2 reasons – the QS are separatists while the NDP are federalists, and one of the conditions of NDP membership is that you are not currently the member of any other party.
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Ian
Article 2, section 1 http://xfer.ndp.ca/2011/2011-constitution/2011-11-CONSTITUTION-ENG.pdf
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In accordance with the PMAD, the city agglomeration is asking for public transit money to be raised by a little uptick in gasoline taxes and a fee on auto licensing.
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François Cardinal restates his point from yesterday that the CAQ promise to cut down the number of elected representatives in Montreal will not magically fix everything wrong with the city. He goes on to illustrate why uniform governance for every borough is not a panacea either.
(CAQ’s also thinking along the same lines about school boards – get rid of most of them, centralize the rest and call them “service centres” or some such. I have no strong opinions on this, not having children, but a little warning light goes off when any party pushes hard on slicing away aspects of democratic involvement while hard-selling the bargain you get by centralizing all the decision-making in a few hands.)
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Ephraim
Nothing will magically fix everything is wrong. But that’s an awful lot of salaries being paid.
As far as the school boards are concerned, maybe they should be better run and a LOT more transparent. And certainly Voc. Ed. shouldn’t be in the same hands. Maybe Voc. Ed. for both Secondary levels as CEGEP levels should in fact be under one board. It’s a way to help those who fail out of high school, why are we trusting it to the same people?
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Ephraim
I meant… nothing will magically fix everything THAT is wrong. You don’t fix everything at once, you fix the system and then deal with the problems down the line and streamline. But the reality is that if you keep on waiting until you get it perfect, you never get it published, it’s always in the beta stage.
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Kate
As I say, I haven’t got strong feelings about the school boards. But I think you may be right on Voc.Ed. – there should be some way of framing it so you acknowledge that while not everyone is suited to an academically based qualification, the trades are often more remunerative anyway. Maybe this should be handled by Emploi Québec rather than school boards, I don’t know.
But I think Cardinal is right on the city structure. The city’s governance is a house of cards. You can’t just yank out a layer and expect the rest to fall neatly into place.
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Jack
@ Kate I used to agree with you until I saw the school commissioners in action. At the EMSB it is simply Tammany Hall with so much infighting that a “conciliation”consultant had to be hired along with a rumoured threat of a”tutelle” from the Education Ministry. The CSM commissioners are simply a PQ-BQ farm team, as Diane De Courcy’s candidacy in Cremazie bears out.
During the student protests, my daughter’s school in the CSM allowed the students to vote on a three day strike, my 13 year old is pretty sharp but ultimately she just wanted the three days off. I asked the principal if his new found belief in student democracy would extend to uniforms, hiring and staff evaluations.
I was supportive of the protest at the CEGEP and University level but I knew my kid was being used to advance a political mission at the behest of the commissioners, and that is not cool. So Kate I say burn them down give the money per cap (working-middle-rich) to the Conseil d’etablissement and let the communities take care of their own schools. The school boards have outlived their usefulness.
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david m
the thing that scares me is that neighborhoods would be subordinated to the center, and the center elected by the periphery. i like having a borough mayor and council that runs our hood the way we want, and i really really hope that this isn’t changed, no matter the cost. basically, it’s worth the extra money for better things. this being just one example: http://www.mtlurb.com/forums/showthread.php/20555-r%C3%A9am%C3%A9nagement-de-la-rue-rachel
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walkerp
Yes, look what happened to Toronto when the periphery has the voting power: Rob Ford. ’nuff said.
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Ian
It’s a sad fact that Toronto is essentially governed by people that don’t like Toronto, and it’s been that way ever since Toronto and its 905 region burbs got amalgamated. Like the Federal conservative majority, you can put that blames squarely on the 905ers.
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AH
School boards do have a purpose, but at this point they’re competing for money and students (in that order). Having 5 different boards in Montreal (2 english and 3 french) not only duplicates jobs and services, but it means that, as an outside organization who works with schools, I have 5 times more administrative and logistical work to do.
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A demo Thursday morning at the Intercontinental Hotel underlined the labour strife there, but there are also other hotels in town where CSN-affiliated workers are having difficulty getting a contract.
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The city’s in something of a struggle with Tony Accurso over contracts – it cancelled three, and Accurso responded immediately with legal threats because the law does say the city has to take the lowest bid. But it seems Tony walked out of there with $33 million worth of contracts after all, the mayor pleading the necessity for the work to get done.
I mean, you’ve got to admire the chutzpah. And Tony does get things done.
A stoppage of commuter trains Thursday morning arose because of Tony Accurso – a truck belonging to Louisbourg Construction had been left across the tracks between Vendôme and Lucien-l’Allier, effectively bringing to a halt three entire lines right at rush hour.
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Anto
That’ll show him!
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Ian
It’s being reported now as a stolen truck. We ain’t seen nuttin, boss.
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Kate
Brilliant.
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We should resurrect the BRT service and extend it. Oh how I wish with all my heart for BRT service to/from the west island. I live in NDG, it shouldn’t take me over an hour to get to Pointe-Claire.