Québec Municipal Elections 2013

Wed, 2013-11-06 15:41

lagatta

You beat me to that. Not to mention the key aspects of the PM programme, but with a few changes that seemed to save money, such as the Bus Rapid Transit option rather than a system involving tramways as well as buses. Like the Transitway in Ottawa. Problem is, that would have required a lot of empty space and entailed the destruction of one side of historic streets, and wholesale destruction of mature trees. Obviously, in newer, more outlying areas that is a feasible choice and PM certainly supports the expansion of the bus system as well as 21st-century trams.

My major critique of PM is its weakness on housing issues, in preventing the eviction of modest households from central urban neighbourhoods and assuring housing co-ops and other ways of providing stable, quality lodging to the many Montrealers who will never be able to afford the mortgage for purchase of an urban dwelling. But no other party is better on those issues.

Fri, 2013-11-08 19:35

#103

Aristotleded24

Can anyone comment on the re-election of the mayor in La Capitale Nationale?

Sat, 2013-11-09 06:23

#104

cco

He's using his landslide to declare a mandate to smash city unions, essentially (he's already asked the National Assembly to give him the power to lock them out).

For the life of me, I can't understand why that guy is so popular. He won 4th place in a "world's best mayors" ranking from some place or other, citing his "integrity", despite the fact he's the guy who pushed through that no-bid contract with Quebecor for the arena that the NHL won't be coming to -- the one that resulted in some of the PQ caucus quitting.

He also, as I recall, responded to last year's student strike in a way that made Tremblay look like an anarchist, and pushed through his own version of P-6.

Québec City's always been conservative, which seems backwards to me, given that capital cities often tend to be more left-wing, from Edmonton to Austin, TX.

Sat, 2013-11-09 11:52

#105

Aristotleded24

cco wrote:
Québec City's always been conservative, which seems backwards to me, given that capital cities often tend to be more left-wing, from Edmonton to Austin, TX.

And yet the NDP had a clean sweep of the area in the last federal election. Strange indeed.

Sat, 2013-11-09 12:15

#106

cco

A lot of the West Island went NDP too, and I doubt it was out of a sudden outbreak of leftism. Voters here can be mercurial. (Though sadly, not in my own neigbourhood; both my mayor and my councillor were acclaimed, and I'm still represented federally by the odious Marc Garneau.)

Sat, 2013-11-09 12:54

#107

Aristotleded24

cco wrote:
I doubt it was out of a sudden outbreak of leftism.

I love that phraseology, it makes it sound like a disease outbreak.

Sat, 2013-11-09 13:02

#108

cco

Quote:

Crusher: "Infect it? You make sound as if it's a disease."

Picard: "Quite right, doctor. If all goes well... a terminal one."

Sun, 2013-11-10 09:50

#109

Aristotleded24

cco wrote:
He's using his landslide to declare a mandate to smash city unions, essentially (he's already asked the National Assembly to give him the power to lock them out).

For the life of me, I can't understand why that guy is so popular. He won 4th place in a "world's best mayors" ranking from some place or other, citing his "integrity", despite the fact he's the guy who pushed through that no-bid contract with Quebecor for the arena that the NHL won't be coming to -- the one that resulted in some of the PQ caucus quitting.

He also, as I recall, responded to last year's student strike in a way that made Tremblay look like an anarchist, and pushed through his own version of P-6.

Québec City's always been conservative, which seems backwards to me, given that capital cities often tend to be more left-wing, from Edmonton to Austin, TX.

Does that also mean that Quebec City commuters are going to have to wait a bit longer for the Tramway?

Sun, 2013-11-10 11:06

#110

lagatta

Yes. He's a carcentric bastard too.

Getting back to Montréal, I'm disturbed that there has been no change to the Projet Montréal website since the elections. This despite getting twice as many members on Council as before...

Sun, 2013-11-10 14:36

#111

Unionist

lagatta wrote:

Getting back to Montréal, I'm disturbed that there has been no change to the Projet Montréal website since the elections. This despite getting twice as many members on Council as before...

Yeah, I agree - but they've been posting pretty good updates to their [url=https://www.facebook.com/projetmontreal]Facebook page[/url], which is of not much use if you're an abstainer. But even there, the cover photo still is pre-November 3.

Sun, 2013-11-10 22:01

#112

felixr

nicky wrote:

This table makes it clear that Bregeron's mayoralty vote ran considerably behind his party's vote for the borough mayors and for city council:

http://canadianelectionatlas.blogspot.ca/

PartyMayoral candidateMayoral vote%Borough mayor vote*%Council vote**%Total seatsEquipe CoderreDenis Coderre149,46732.15141,59330.86134,17029.4326Projet MontrealRichard Bergeron118,63725.52134,49829.32133,94429.3820Coalition MontrealMarcel Cote59,49012.7983,47818.2085,35118.726Vrai changementMelanie Joly123,06226.4753,96911.7658,89012.924

PM and Team Coderre ran neck and neck, except for the mayoralty...if PM had had a better mayoral candidate, I beat they would be in power right now and not Coderre.

Tue, 2013-11-19 20:55

#113

cco

Coderre snubs PM for executive

Tue, 2013-11-19 21:25

#114

lagatta

Villeray borough mayor Anie Samson played a deplorable role in the sad story of the refusal of a hostel for Inuit people fron Nunavik (Northern Québec) receiving medical care in Montréal hospitals (I wrote a lot about this at rabble, bread and roses, and other sites back then). There was a racist leaflet against the project (an Algonquin woman who lives in Villeray received it in her letter box and informed Inuit associations of this outrage). Ms Samson (I am striving to avoid language about her grr) said: Anie Samson qui déclare le 10 mai : « Quand t’amènes 125 personnes qui sont dépaysées, c’est le nouveau, c’est la grande ville, c’est le party. C’est sûr qu’il va y avoir des choses qui vont se passer. Me dire qu’il n’y aura aucune incivilité, c’est nous mentir. Je peux vous dire qu’on en a déjà plein les mains avec différents problèmes sociaux [2] This fuelled stereotypes about First Peoples - itinerance, drug and alcohol abuse etc. And one of the people behind the hate letter was a manager of a popular local bar!

Many of us were involved in a citizen committee in favour of the centre, but alas the majority on Council opposed it, and the Inuit felt unwelcome (despite our efforts, and insisting that there was a tiny minority of racists, and of course Council were more interested in lucrative condo deals than welcoming a First People of our land as they needed support during medical care. http://www.ababord.org/spip.php?article1146

In English: http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/87897_makivik_president_ou...

Ms Samson has often spoken of the wealth of cultures in our neighbourhood, and at a presentation of art by two prominent Indigenous artists at our local Maison de la culture.

For shame!

Tue, 2013-11-19 21:49

#115

[email protected]

Could some please explain the basic outlines of these political groups? I am confused. Thank you

Tue, 2013-11-19 21:52

#116

lagatta

Are you talking about the struggle for the Inuit housing in Villeray, or the different political parties on the Montréal city level?

Tue, 2013-11-19 23:11

#117

Unionist

[size=12] Projet: good. Others: not.[/size]

Wed, 2013-11-20 09:09

#118

[email protected]

I am struggling to learn who who is who in Quebec.

Wed, 2013-11-20 09:09

#119

[email protected]

I am struggling to learn who who is who in Quebec.

Wed, 2013-11-20 09:10

#120

[email protected]

I am struggling to learn who who is who in Quebec.

Wed, 2013-11-20 09:10

#121

[email protected]

Bless my cracked I pad. When I have some money It needs replacing

Wed, 2013-11-20 10:30

#122

Stockholm

I just read that after a recount Lorraine Page (who is a former union leader but who ran with the Melanie Joly party) has had her win confirmed. the election night count had her winning by 9 votes after the judicial recount - she was declared the winner by ONE vote - proving once and for all that every vote counts!

Wed, 2013-11-20 11:12

#123

lagatta

Stockholm, don't you know how to accent French names?

Sat, 2013-11-23 02:22

#124

Wilf Day

Boroughs run by Projet Montreal:
Plateau-Mont-Royal

Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie

Sud-Ouest

And then there's Ville-Marie: Coderre and his two nominees, two Projet Montreal, and Steve Shanahan. How will that work?

Can those boroughs do anything worthwhile?

Sat, 2013-11-23 07:10

#125

lagatta

The Projet Montréal borough council has done great things here, including managing to get funding for a new library, which is due to open very soon, and of course projecting sidewalks (with greenery), several bicycle lanes and other traffic-calming measures. But Projet is shut out of municipal council; Coderre chose only "oppositionists" from the business-as-usual parties that won far fewer seats and got a much lower vote on council level.

Sat, 2013-11-23 07:40

#126

Unionist

[size=12] Lagatta meant that Projet is shut out of the 12-member executive committee, which is hand-picked by the mayor. Projet won 20 of the 65 seats on Montréal city council. [/size]

Sat, 2013-11-23 08:13

#127

lagatta

Yes, you are right. I meant the executive, of course.

Sat, 2013-11-23 11:32

#128

Stockholm

lagatta wrote:

Stockholm, don't you know how to accent French names?

My keyboard doesn't seem to letr me do it when I'm commening on rabble...I canly do it on word documents...unl;ess of course i switched keyboards etc...which seems like a lot of trouble just to put an accent on one letter

Sat, 2013-11-23 13:54

#129

alan smithee alan smithee's picture

Coderre is a clown...His first priority?...Going after massage parlours.

A sign of a leader without a plan...or clue.

Fri, 2013-11-29 19:10

#130

cco

Réal Ménard says he may have to resign as borough mayor

Quote:

In a letter published today in La Presse, Côté explained that his party wasn’t entitled to a refund for campaign expenses from the Quebec government because he didn’t receive at least 15 per cent of the vote.

Normally a mayoral candidate who doesn’t get at least 15 per cent of the vote gets removed from city council, Côté said, and he got 12.8 per cent of the vote. His interpretation of the electoral law is that fate befalls Ménard, who won the most votes in the party.

Côté went on in his letter to say this would prevent the party from submitting its expense reports.

And once again, I am befuddled by an aspect of the electoral law. An elected borough mayor has to quit because his party leader didn't get 15% of the vote, because he got the most votes of anyone in the party? But $500k would get him in?

Denis Dion says that's not the case, but it appears at least mildly ambiguous. Someone please explain this to me. After a decade of study, I think I've mastered the subtleties of the federal and provincial political systems, but the municipal level keeps tripping me up.

Tue, 2014-02-18 23:31

#131

Unionist

Unionist wrote:

It would be nice if PM could have found a more consistent, polished, inspiring leader. Or, as some suggest, if they can find a better one after winning power. But this is all we have to work with.

Well guess what:

[url=http://journalmetro.com/actualites/montreal/449422/alexandre-boulerice-p... Boulerice being courted by Projet Montréal[/url]

He says his priority is to defeat Harper in 2015 - but after that election, "I have no idea what I'll be doing".

Recall that after the recent municipal election, Richard Bergeron said he would stay on for 12 to 24 months...

I generally hate the word "gamechanger", but...

Wed, 2014-02-19 06:38

#132

Bärlüer

It's great news (insomuch as we can call it that). I would much prefer to see Boulerice, a solid progressive, leading Projet Montréal than, um, some other pretenders that have been mentioned... (Well, one in particular.) I hope he runs.

Wed, 2014-02-19 07:18

#133

lagatta

Yes, I got several e-mails about this last night; it is a problem similar to Olivia Chow in Toronto; also hate to lose either of them in Parliament. Boulerice is a very eloquent speaker and gets soundbites all the time here.

Fri, 2014-02-21 17:18

#134

cco

Montreal to cover the Autoroute Ville-Marie

Brilliant of Coderre, really. A nice Big Dig-style project to settle down his mafia base, so cruelly deprived of graft by the spotlight Charbonneau's thrown on things. And on top of it all, he puts Bergeron in charge, to make sure Projét's hands are dirty by the next election. Guess that's why they pay him the cash-stuffed envelopes!

Fri, 2014-02-21 17:25

#135

Unionist

Excuse me for saying so, but of all the useless projects, given the social-economic-housing problems that Montréal faces. And Bergeron... is he just a glutton for flattery? Even if (as Le Devoir reported) Bergeron has dreamt of this project for years, does he lack political sense entirely? And now he's staying on until 2017, because Coderre is playing nice?

Give me a break.

Sun, 2014-02-23 12:33

#136

Wilf Day

lagatta wrote:

Yes, I got several e-mails about this last night; it is a problem similar to Olivia Chow in Toronto; also hate to lose either of them in Parliament. Boulerice is a very eloquent speaker and gets soundbites all the time here.

He does very well on CBC (English) too.

Tue, 2014-02-25 18:19

#137

alan smithee alan smithee's picture

I don't know what to make of this.

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/more-powers-to-montreal-key-in-10-step-plan-t...

But I do agree that Montréal should be governed differently than the regions.

Fri, 2014-03-14 13:47

#138

cco

Louise Harel asks to dissolve Vision Montréal

Sat, 2014-09-06 08:56

#139

lagatta

Hardly a surprise.

Will Lorraine Pagé join Projet Montréal?

Sat, 2014-09-06 09:02

#140

Unionist

DaveW, on October 28, 2013 wrote:
Melanie Joly, well, she is transparently ambitious, as Le Devoir said Saturday. Headed for federal politics, a Liberal parachute, you watch.

Not quite yet, but it looks as if she's well on her way:

Mélanie Joly steps down as leader of Vrai changement pour Montréal

Quote:

Joly has close ties to federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, but she said running in the 2015 federal election is not on her radar — right now.

"I’ve been approached by many parties at the Quebec level and the federal level, and have always said no. My decision is really to go back into the business world. I’m not saying I am not interested in politics and that in the [future] I won’t go back to politics, but for now my decision is to stay basically in the business world."

Liar. Hope she crashes and burns.

Thu, 2014-10-02 13:14

#141

Unionist

So Richard Bergeron is now saying he may carry on after 2017, contrary to what he said before (that he'd leave by 2015), but that he won't run for the mayoralty again.

I really don't understand this person and his boring announcements.

I'd rather he and his party focus on how to defeat the neoliberal gangsters now in power.

Mon, 2014-11-17 09:45

#142

cco

So, as nasty a campaign as Montréal had last year, Laval got it significantly worse (gangsterism charges, reporters being run off the road, and so forth). Now it turns out the victor, Marc Demers, may have been ineligible to run in the first place. Whoops.

Mon, 2014-11-17 10:17

#143

Unionist

Unionist wrote:

So Richard Bergeron is now saying he may carry on after 2017, contrary to what he said before (that he'd leave by 2015), but that he won't run for the mayoralty again.

I really don't understand this person and his boring announcements.

I'd rather he and his party focus on how to defeat the neoliberal gangsters now in power.

Oh well, I guess he didn't listen to my sage advice:

[url=http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/montreal/201411/15/01-4819193-richard-... Presse[/url]

Is Richard Bergeron really joining forces with Denis Coderre - being promised a cushy spot on the executive committee? Is this for real???

ETA: This was an earlier story, in English:

[url=http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/bergeron-and-projet-montreal-... and Projet Montréal parting ways[/url]

Is it actually conceivable that Projet Montréal hasn't commented on this yet - or did I just miss it somehow??

Québec Municipal Elections 2013

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