Updates from November, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 11:41 on 2021-11-06 Permalink | Reply  

    The CBC has a summary of the municipal candidates and their promises, a brief guide on how to vote and some thoughts on why you should vote.

    Radio-Canada on why this could be a key election for visible minorities.

    CTV has a news category containing stories from the campaign and a recent sweep of campaigning activity.

    Ensemble revealed its projected budget Friday night, on the brink of election weekend – as Radio-Canada puts it, à minuit moins une.

    Global says the campaign has taken a nasty turn.

    I’d love to know who told CBC about Craig Sauvé’s problem, and how hard Coderre’s people were working to dig up dirt, any dirt, on any Projet people, only to find a single complaint about an incumbent councillor that dates back to 2012.

     

    • ant6n 12:24 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

    • Kate 12:28 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      Thanks, ant6n.

    • walkerp 14:03 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      Feels like a complete smear job that will end up only hurting Coderre. It may not change anybody’s vote, but leaves a dirty taste right at the end of the campaign that people will associate with Coderre’s camp.

    • dhomas 14:57 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      Speaking of “nasty turns”, this “The Suburban” article is quite egregious: https://www.thesuburban.com/opinion/editorials/vote-for-change/article_52f2a86f-fd33-5e64-bfa9-a6dac849fdfe.html
      A) Montreal already voted for change already when we gave Coderre the boot 4 years ago.
      B) Having the name “The Suburban” should disqualify you from being taken seriously in the largest URBAN centre in the province and second largest in the country.
      C) The pandemic is a thing that happened. You can’t just dump the blame for everything it caused on the mayor, without even mentioning it.

    • DisgruntledGoat 15:31 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      Man The Suburban is such an angryphone rag. Their readers drive into dense neighbourhoods once a week to do some shopping they can’t get done at Costco, and complain about parking with their sticky-handed children in tow.

    • dhomas 17:08 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      I liked bringing my kids to the voting stations. I like to show them that it’s important to vote. Last election, they even got to “vote” for stuff like parks, libraries, pools, etc. There was no children’s vote this election, though, I assume because of the pandemic.
      Their hands aren’t too sticky, thankfully.

    • Kate 19:49 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      There are good reasons I never link to Suburban stories!

      dhomas, I never heard about the kid vote – we talked about this before in comments. Maybe it was a borough-level idea, so I didn’t see it in VSMPE. But I would’ve been all over that as a kid. It’s important to show the process to kids so they feel part of it as they grow up. Your kids will vote.

    • John B 20:20 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      There’s online voting for kids this election. Not as cool, but understandable.

    • dhomas 21:52 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      @Kate The kid vote was only in 19 polling stations last time around, with plans to expand:
      https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/children-vote-municipal-democracy-1.4381452
      My daughter was very proud to participate (she got a “j’ai voté” sticker ans everything!).
      Maybe for next election, when kids will be vaccinated, they’ll resume.
      @John B Thanks for the link! I didn’t realize they were doing this until right now. I’ll get the kids to vote tomorrow morning.

    • MarcG 22:03 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      I think voting/hierarchy is stupid and my parents never brought me with them to vote but I can’t resist going to the polls. Maybe it’s because my father ranted about party politics every night during supper. Either way, good luck influencing your children, they’ll probably just do the opposite of what you want.

    • Kate 22:36 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      MarcG, it varies. I didn’t do everything my parents wanted, but my mother was very definite about always voting in elections, so I always have. Her father had acted as a scrutineer (as have I), and had impressed on her the importance of using your vote because “if you don’t, someone else might” – less likely now because we have to show ID, but I’ve remembered it.

    • jeather 09:44 on 2021-11-07 Permalink

      I voted, which was easy and fast (I wasn’t asked to take off my mask), but wow would I not have wanted to work at that election. People sat right next to each other, had masks dangling down, etc, and of course there’s no air circulation and the workers didn’t need to be vaccinated.

      It’s really a shame, I liked working at elections before.

    • Kate 10:27 on 2021-11-07 Permalink

      jeather, I feel sad too that I couldn’t work in the elections this year, for the same reason.

      When I voted last weekend at the advance poll in Villeray, it was a little tighter. The poll workers had plexiglas between them, and there was plexiglas in front of the tables. And I did have to remove my mask for a second so they could compare my ID.

    • GC 11:13 on 2021-11-07 Permalink

      I went today, as I was out of town all the other days. As I approached, it looked like there was a line. But it was only a bottleneck since the place had just opened and I only needed to walk three blocks to get there. So painless and quick.

    • jeather 12:54 on 2021-11-07 Permalink

      Voting felt as safe as anything else does, honestly. They did have plexiglas between me and the poll workers, which felt exceptionally pointless.

  • Kate 09:23 on 2021-11-06 Permalink | Reply  

    Listen to the whiny editorial tone Brendan Kelly takes telling how restaurants can’t find enough workers. Kelly isn’t even quoting anyone else when he writes “You could sweat it out for eight hours in a hot kitchen or you could make the same amount of money sitting at home watching Netflix. So it’s not surprising that employers were having trouble finding staff.”

    Yes, Brendan. You could expose yourself to COVID in a hot kitchen or you could take the government’s dime – into which you had been paying taxes – to lock down, keep yourself healthy and withdraw from nonessential work so that contagion could be reduced. How about seeing it that way?

    A journalist should not be so swayed by the views of the people he has just interviewed.

    The Journal has an altogether more down-to-earth restaurant piece Saturday on widespread hikes in the cost of food, and the consequences to restaurants of passing these price hikes on to their clients.

    Afterthought: Are we already forgetting that an entire year elapsed between the beginning of Covid and the availability of vaccines? That between March 2020 and March 2021, the only way to avoid getting sick was to stay away from other people, especially in cramped conditions indoors?

     

    • su 10:55 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      Back in the 80’s and 90’s, the restaurants I worked at were benefiting from working class refugee and immigrant workers. In the summer university students were available in large numbers.
      I wonder how Covid effects and immigration economic- demographic priorities have affected the availability of particularly kitchen staff.

    • DeWolf 11:20 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      // Oliveira said he often meets young potential employees and they say they only want to work one day a week, that many want to focus more on education, that they’re looking at getting into other more stable professions. He mentioned that two people currently working at Melrose Pizza are leaving to become electricians and that they started exploring this option when the restaurants were all closed during the pandemic. //

      This is it. It’s not like restaurant workers were lazy and didn’t bother looking for work because of the CERB. Restaurants were closed for 10 months, and even those that switched to takeout were operating a reduced capacity, so the jobs just weren’t there. And by the time the jobs came back, people had moved on with their lives. My wife is training to become a woodworker and her vocational school is full of people who used to work as chefs, cooks, waiters, bartenders. Some of them tried going back to work when bars and restaurants reopened but just couldn’t juggle it with the full-time woodworking course.

      Many restaurants are now offering better pay and conditions than they were before, which is great and necessary. But that won’t solve the problem because a large portion of workers just aren’t there anymore, and it’s not clear if anyone will replace them.

    • Uatu 11:44 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      The pandemic has shown how the restaurant business depends on nickel and diming every one from employees to customers to actually make money. And even successful restaurantuers like Mario Battali have been sued for unpaid overtime and tip garnishing. Even if covid becomes endemic would anyone want to return to the status quo and work the dish pit on a Friday night for minimum wage and no tips because you’re back of the house? The business model has to change because treating employees like garbage means they’ll never come back.

    • Kevin 12:18 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      The Great Resignation began in Canada last year when people realized how precarious their jobs were. Restaurateurs complaining now are very slow to the game.

    • JP 12:44 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      I read Brendan Kelly’s article yesterday and was wondering if it would be discussed here. I saw the exact quote Kate pointed out and was shocked to see it wasn’t a direct quote from someone interviewed. There’s a lot of judgement, negativity and resentment there…

      Hopefully, this wave of change leads to better working conditions overall in restaurants and elsewhere.

    • steph 13:06 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      The restaurants will HAVE to adapt if they want to survive. CERB ended months ago and the workers are still refusing to return to those pitiful conditions. If employers can’t give living wages, then they don’t deserve to be in buisness. No one is shedding a tear for a failed buisness.

    • Kate 14:05 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      “People are quitting their jobs because they perceive their jobs suck. Not that complicated.” – Rands

    • EmilyG 20:59 on 2021-11-06 Permalink

      Christo Aivalis on Twitter, about restaurant bosses:
      “They cry about entitled workers when they literally feel entitled to workers”
      https://twitter.com/christoaivalis/status/1456858079681712134?s=20

    • Ephraim 08:48 on 2021-11-07 Permalink

      Abusive customers, abusive managers/bosses, unpredictable pay, revolving hours, last minute call-ins because of inability to schedule… I wonder why no one wants these jobs…

      This needs a revolution and an end to tipping needs to be the start. Tipping is related to slavery… it was a way to employ people without paying them a wage. It needs to stop. These need to become jobs with dignity… not a dance for money. Not a fake smile while you sexually harass me, because I’m being paid as a percentage of what you eat. A dignified salaried job with benefits.

  • Kate 08:53 on 2021-11-06 Permalink | Reply  

    Although Craig Sauvé has withdrawn from Projet Montréal, the electoral deadline means it’s too late for him to dissociate himself before the election, plus there’s the practical matter that it’s too late to reprint the ballots.

    Sauvé may yet be re-elected in Sud-Ouest, where he’s well known and popular.

    I should maybe add here that while Sauvé and I are not close, I’ve met him, I’ve lunched with him and consider him a good guy, which not all politicians are. Which doesn’t mean I have an opinion in this latest scandal, about which I know only what’s in the papers.

     

    • Kate 08:46 on 2021-11-06 Permalink | Reply  

      Here are your driving crises of the weekend.

       

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