Montreal City Weblog

Kate 21:56 on 2021-02-06 Permalink Reply  

• Tim S. 09:59 on 2021-02-07 Permalink

  This municipal election will be an interesting contest between determined party activists and disgruntled mainstream media.

• Jonathan 11:38 on 2021-02-07 Permalink

  Tim, agreed!

• Kate 12:41 on 2021-02-07 Permalink

  I think a lot will depend on how we all feel if the pandemic fades between now and November. Will an ongoing quality-of-life party win, or will enough people be up for a post‑pandemic fandango of Coderre‑style bread‑and‑circuses administration?

  I think this year we’re all going to have to face that government coffers (at all levels) are not bottomless. Someone campaigning on big parties may not have much credibility if people can feel it in their wallets that the parties mean a bigger tax bill. But blow enough smoke and it might work.

  Also, I always remind myself that barely 40% of eligible voters can be bothered to cast a ballot in municipal elections. Even after the debacle of the end of the Tremblay era, the impulse to throw those bums out barely moved that number.

• Michael Black 12:55 on 2021-02-07 Permalink

  Mail-in voting would be useful.

  I looked into it for the last federal election, but unless you were in a remote area, it wasn’t available.

• Kate 14:14 on 2021-02-07 Permalink

  For a municipal election, remote areas won’t be relevant, but I’m pretty sure Elections Quebec must be working on ramping up voting-by-mail options for the municipal elections to take place this November all the same.

  Conventional polling stations may be over. You can’t stay distanced if you’re working at a table alongside other people, or counting ballots with them. Once the system is in place for people to vote conveniently by mail, it may simply continue.

  I’ve worked for elections, and in a way I think something will be lost if we can’t vote in person any more. There’s a concrete feel of democracy in action as you watch people of all types and ages coming in to vote. But time will tell.

• dhomas 19:01 on 2021-02-07 Permalink

  I like voting in person because it lets me show my kids democracy in action and gives me the opportunity to explain to them how it works. I quite liked the election where kids got to vote (I think their options were more parks, more pools, or more libraries). You don’t get that same feel with mail-in voting (which I do for Italian elections). Also, I like getting my “I voted” sticker. :p

• Kate 22:44 on 2021-02-07 Permalink

  dhomas, do you get to vote for one of those overseas constituencies?

• GC 21:40 on 2021-02-07 Permalink

  Do we actually give out stickers here? I’ve voted in every election–at all three levels of government–since 2010 and I can’t remember getting any stickers. Have I been doing it all wrong?

• Kate 22:41 on 2021-02-07 Permalink

  GC, I’ve worked on elections at all three levels over the last decade, and there were never any stickers. American friends have mentioned them, though.

• dhomas 03:40 on 2021-02-08 Permalink

  I know I got a sticker for the last municipal election in 2017. I know for a fact because I have a picture with my daughter and her “électeur en herbe” sticker. I don’t think I’ve gotten stickers for every election, though.
  About voting in Italian elections, Italian citizens abroad get to vote in many but not all elections (for some, like EU elections, you need to be present in Italy, but I don’t know which others). I believe the Italian government considers all Italians living abroad (except those temporarily away from home) one big electoral district.

• Kate 11:00 on 2021-02-08 Permalink

  dhomas, maybe they didn’t do kids’ elections at all the polling stations. I worked for that municipal election at a school in Park Ex, but I don’t remember any special feature for kids.

  As for overseas constituencies of the Italian Parliament there are four.

• dhomas 17:14 on 2021-02-08 Permalink

  Shows what I know! My voting card usually says “Circoscrizione Estero” (“Foreign District”), so I thought there was the one “zone”. However, that one electoral district is indeed split into 4 distinct constituencies (“ripartizione”) for each geographical area. TIL

• Orr 23:42 on 2021-02-08 Permalink

  I made my first political donation in my life recently to Projet Montreal because I don’t want to see the many recent quality of neighbourhood life improvements disappear or be reversed if the anti-good-things-for-Montrealers Ensemble-Montreal opposition party gets into power. Long live the REV St-Denis!