It’s 20:05, and polls are closed. Radio-Canada has a results site with numbers from Montreal and other towns. CBC radio will be following the results.
I guess if only 31.7% of us take the trouble to vote, being this interested in the result verges on the geeky.
Aaaaaand – Valérie Plante has won a second term!!
Metro checked out polling places in central Montreal and found them quiet. They claim that only 31.7% of eligible voters had voted by 4 p.m. Sunday – disheartening, if true.
When we walked in to vote, we were the only people in the building. Two others came in while we were voting. Municipal elections don’t really bring people in.
I wonder if the four voting days have made it too convenient to vote – it’s easy to put something off when you can just do it later. Plus the spread-out days work against the notion of election “day”… Next thing you know it’s Sunday night and you forgot to vote.
I wouldn’t read too much into those before 4pm voter turn out numbers, today was such a beautiful day I think most people felt obligated to go enjoy it and voted later. I certainly went after it got dark and there must have been half a dozen people there also voting for the 5 minutes I spent in the building.
The Journal’s weekend history piece is about the Queen Elizabeth Hotel although it veers off quite fast onto how and why Dorchester Boulevard was renamed.
What I find more interesting is the history, as it’s put here, of how the hotel and Central Station were designed to “masquer les infrastructures ferroviaires du centre-ville.” I’m not old enough to remember when the train went through an open trench into the Mount Royal tunnel, but there are photos on this page showing a few views. Can’t deny that it was a terrific idea to cover that over.
They conveniently left out that Montreal-Est also kept the Dorchester name… twice
The Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada wrote up the design of Central Station shortly after it opened in 1943. Interesting reading for anyone interested in history and/or infrastructure. It’s a 7MB pdf.
As nice as it is that the trench was eventually covered over, that came about as part of a massive real-estate play rather than for any aesthetic reasons.
@Max … and also resulted in Place Ville Marie, still to-this-day Montreal’s classiest skyscraper.
PVM got the RAIC Journal treatment in 1963. 22 MB pdf.
Fairmount Bagel has stayed open 24/7 since the death of its presumed future owner, early Friday. This item suggests police are still weighing the evidence to discern whether it was a double homicide, or a murder-suicide.
La Presse talked with several urbanists about the Montreal of the future at least partly to underline the importance of the decisions we’re making now, including specifically this election Sunday.
I’m really into the idea of the 15 minute city, but what’s missing from many conversations about density and urban living is also letting people get out into the countryside from time to time, which is really difficult with our current public transit set up. I’m optimistic about the Grand Parc de l’ouest, and hope they don’t screw it up by making people walk through a bunch of parking lots/condo developments between the park and the REM station, but we need more projects like that to get people to accept car-less living in the city. At least people like me.
Anyways, lots of interesting ideas in there about many topics.
La Presse looks into how it works when a mayor is elected to preside over a council in which his or her party doesn’t hold a majority of the seats. The tl;dr is that it has happened before and tends to shake out because parties and party affiliations are more malleable at the municipal level.
Most media have a guide on how to vote Sunday – a little late, considering we’ve already had three voting days last weekend and Saturday.
I voted this morning and it was super easy, much easier than federal or provincial elections. I found it odd though that each ballot didn’t tell you the position that the candidates were running for.
Two men were found stabbed to death in a Côte-des-Neiges apartment overnight, but the way this is told doesn’t make clear whether both were victims of a third party, or whether one was the aggressor. Radio-Canada’s version makes it clear that at least one of the men died after police arrived, so an investigation by the SQ will also be carried out under the BEI. CBC’s version is basically the English of the Radio-Canada account.
But nobody is giving this incident any homicide numbers yet.
Tim S. 22:13 on 2021-11-07 Permalink
Seems like an early call…
Kate 22:15 on 2021-11-07 Permalink
At 9:15, it’s 50% to Plante vs 40% to Coderre on Radio-Canada. They’ve already called.
9:45, Coderre has sunk to 38% while Plante is at 52%, more of a point spread than expected.
Mark Côté 23:18 on 2021-11-07 Permalink
Perez wins mayor of CDN-NDG but Coderre loses again. Wonder what he is going to do now that he theoretically has more power, although he’ll still have 2/5 or possibly 3/5 Projet councillors here, so still lots of excuses to complain about things.
dhomas 23:19 on 2021-11-07 Permalink
Wow, what an embarrassing defeat for Coderre. I actually was worried that he would become mayor again.
Meezly 23:23 on 2021-11-07 Permalink
Hope this’ll make him slink away for good.
ant6n 08:18 on 2021-11-08 Permalink
It seems Craig Sauve also won his riding (52%). And Im seeing the results that Alan deSousa is still around as well. Oh And Plante is mayor for Ville-Marie, didn`t Projet Montreal promise to fix this unelected borough mayor problem?
Kate 09:32 on 2021-11-08 Permalink
ant6n, I think the Ville-Marie issue was mentioned but not sure it was in the platform. It’s long since time for an anomaly that started with a spat between Gérald Tremblay and Benoit Labonté to be fixed. The city mayor has enough to do without also having to be mayor of Ville‑Marie as well. That’s a big job in itself.
Meezly, I hope you’re right, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Coderre is only 58. He’s been an MP and a big city mayor and I don’t think he’s ready to give up just yet on the possibility of some day being a big shot again. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him even make a move in next year’s Quebec elections. Don’t know whether the PLQ would want him, though.
walkerp 10:58 on 2021-11-08 Permalink
Now you see how amplified and exaggerated the complaints about parking and bike lanes were. If it was such an important issue, those people would have voted. The car lobby and suburban car addict trolls tried but transport has actually improved (and quality of life) for most of us in the central part of Montreal and hasn’t gotten that much worse for those dependent on their cars to make it actually worth it to vote against Projet.
Joey 11:26 on 2021-11-08 Permalink
Now Denis Coderre is available for his real dream job: president of Montreal’s returning baseball team.