09:32 on 2012/08/07 Reply  

• jeather 10:49 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  Yes, that seems like a totally reasonable place to spend one’s energy, as Westmount is the only city in all of Canada that doesn’t have its name in the riding. I hope he’s getting a lot of letters complaining about this waste of time.

• William 10:58 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  I’m against the new name, not because I think the name Westmount is in and of itself particularly important, but because I think naming ridings after people is a bad idea.

• Kate 11:04 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  Maybe, but we’ve been doing that for a long time. I’m of two minds, but then I live in Park Extension-Villeray-Saint-Michel borough and I sort of wish they’d just call it Papineau or something (like the federal riding that includes a large piece of it).

• jeather 11:15 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  Federal ridings especially as they get redistricted tend to be named after people. I don’t particularly care if they are named after people or cities, and I can’t see how the name of the riding (as opposed to the borders) has any real impact on anyone.

• Kevin 11:41 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  It’s my riding and I don’t live in Westmount :P

• Ian 12:31 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  I’m in Mercier … not much to go by there. Unless you’re a big Honoré Mercier fan that can look past the corruption that led to his dismissal from office. He’d probably fit in just fine with the modern PLQ.

• William 12:44 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  Kate, that is pretty much the worst “reason” to do anything ;)

• John 12:57 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  In the last re-drawing, that commission intended to change the name of NDG-Lachine to just Lachine. The then MP, Marlene Jennings, argued to keep NDG in the riding’s name. In it’s final report the commission had accepted her recommendation, but changed the borders, chopping out three-quarters of NDG and adding Dorval.
  The good people of Dorval resented the name of their city not being included in the riding for the next ten years of Jennings’ term (and let her know).
  The staff of the current MP adds Ville St. Pierre, Montreal West, and Dorval to their email signature line (creating their own “no city left behind” policy).

• qatzelok 18:10 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  First, the working class tried to put a service road into the new Anglo hospital through Westmount, and now this. It may soon be time to deploy some smallpox blankets.

• Ian 20:50 on 2012/08/07 Permalink

  “Anglo hospital”. Nice. Let me know when the “Anglo” hospitals start turning away Francophones. The only way I can comprehend your implausible racism is that you yourself are more racist than I can comprehend and you just assume everyone else is as virulently xenophobic as yourself.

• Kevin 08:04 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  @Ian
  Listen to Rad-Can sometime, where it’s called l’hopital de Ouestmount

• qatzelok 08:14 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  Ian, speaking of racism, the Anglo hospital is receiving about the same amount of funding as the Franco hospital, even though sick Anglos are only about a tenth the number.

  It would appear that race preference is alive and well, and is primarily the result of money hoarding, rather than the result of sarcastic comments on weblogs as you suggest.

• Kate 08:25 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  qatzelok, it’s not “race preference”, get a grip. The English hospitals are connected with McGill, which trains half of the city’s medical students. McGill was training doctors before any French-language school did so here. They’ve been doing modern medicine longer than most hospitals anywhere, they adopted Lister’s practices earlier, William Osler, who defined many modern medical practices, trained at McGill and worked there.

  There’s a lot of history here. Many of the city’s hospitals were established and endowed by anglos and their foundations continue, so you have money from the General, the Vic and the Children’s all going into the McGill hospital foundation which is behind the MUHC hospital. We benefit here from research being done both on the English side and the French side. The English-language stuff is more likely to attract researchers from the English-speaking world. This is worth funding – both sides are worth funding, it’s one of the things this city does well.

  Would you really defund and choke off the McGill medical tradition because it’s speaking the “wrong” language and because you think it’s spoiling the wrong community to have it here?

• qatzelok 08:29 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  “There’s a lot of history here.”
  Yes, and there’s a lot of old money and mafia money floating around McGill’s alumni association. So I guess it’s possible to justify giving Francophones one tenth the hospital funding per capita by saying “English world! English medicine!”

  But at what point can we say this kind of unequal access to funds is racist? Maybe the Francophones don’t need a hospital at all? Why should Goldman Sachs help Francophones who didn’t even support WW2? (History)

• Kate 08:33 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  No, I’m saying the English side here has a whole institutional system and historical weight behind it and continues to do such valuable work that it would be insanity to cut it down on ideological grounds. And as Ian points out, anyone can get seen at any hospital here, it’s not as if you only get admitted to the Vic or the Children’s if you speak English.

• qatzelok 08:39 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  Kate, are the Franco doctors so dumb that they can’t innovate like Anglo doctors? Is that why the Franco doctors are getting one tenth the funding?

• Kate 09:08 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  They are not getting one tenth the funding and I did not say francophone doctors are dumb. You’re just trolling now.

• Marc 09:12 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  qatzelok, by any chance are you a member of Movement Montréal Français and/or Impératif Français? I ask because you expressed one of their talking points almost to the letter.

• Kate 09:46 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  I would also note that the results of medical research are not bounded by linguistic limits. If you find a cure or treatment that works, the language spoken by the patient is not a factor.

• qatzelok 13:34 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  @ Kate: “I would also note that the results of medical research are not bounded by linguistic limits. ”

  No, but they are limited by resources limits and funding. So giving Anglo doctors ten times the money ensures that they get to play the hero, just like in Afghanistan and Iraq.

• mare 14:22 on 2012/08/08 Permalink

  @qatzelok and others.
  I just came back from the “Anglo” hospital and there are plenty of francophone patients, nurses and doctors there, and all doctors are bilingual since you can’t practice medicine in Quebec if you don’t speak French (unless you are in the private, cash only, system). They even had a hispanophone nurse from another department to translate when an older lady woke up after her surgery.

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