There have been two arrests in the fatal stabbing of a young man downtown two months ago. Charges will be laid on Friday.
Updates from November, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Projet Montréal is asking for two recounts, one for the mayoralty of Outremont, which the Ensemble candidate won by 23 votes, and one in Tétreaultville, where an Ensemble councillor won by 50.
DeWolf
Interesting that Ensemble hasn’t asked for a recount in CDN-NDG, but I suppose they’re in total disarray at the moment…
Chris
There’s no automatic recount for extremely tight results? Is counting so laborious/expensive? Seems like we should all want to know the true result.
H. John
There are no automatic recounts under Quebec’s ACT RESPECTING ELECTIONS AND REFERENDUMS IN MUNICIPALITIES, but:
262. Any person who has reasonable grounds to believe that a deputy returning officer, a poll clerk or the returning officer has improperly counted or rejected votes or has drawn up an incorrect statement of the number of votes cast in favour of a candidate may apply for a recount of the votes. The application may be limited to one or certain polling subdivisions but the judge is not bound by that limitation.
Any person who has reasonable grounds to believe that the returning officer improperly compiled the votes cast in favour of a candidate may apply for a re-addition of the votes.Kate
Thank you, H. John.
Once again we’re looking at how rules governing municipal parties and elections are not the same as those for federal or provincial ones. The federal page says “A judicial recount must take place if the leading candidates in an electoral district receive the same number of votes after the validation of the results or if the difference in votes is less than one one-thousandth of the total votes cast.” So it’s automatic in that case, whereas in municipal elections, it’s not.
Ian
Outremont was pretty close. I guess people were angrier about PM introducing parking stickers than he was willing to recognize. There were complaints that it’s basically a tax on the middle class as wealthy people have driveways…
DeWolf
You’re probably right, Ian. Outremont also had particularly high turnout (54 percent) which means that a lot of people went out to specifically vote against Tomlinson.
But I have very little sympathy for anyone who expects to monopolize a shared resource without paying a dime for it. We all pay property tax for the land our housing occupies, and housing is a net benefit to society. Free parking is a net drain. It is environmentally destructive and a waste of land that could be used for greenery or community amenities. If someone wants the privilege of occupying public space with a piece of their private property they should be paying a price for it.
Ian
Be that as it may, PM is often perceived as dogmatic, and no politician can simply take away things without backlash. Apparently a slim majority of Outremont voters, at least. Alienating the middle class rarely plays well in municipal politics.
dhomas
I’m middle class. I pay for a “vignette” for my car (though not in Outremont). I’m fine with it. I actually think it’s not expensive enough. But, with my vignette, I’m guaranteed no one from outside my neighbourhood will take “my” spot.
Also, the whole argument that middle class people pay more is kinda nonsense (“C’est un règlement qui est élitiste parce que si vous avez deux autos ça tourne autour de 500 $ tandis que les gens qui ont de magnifiques maisons par ici ils sont chanceux. S’ils ont un garage, ils n’auront pas d’argent à payer”). Those rich people with garages paid much more for their houses and pay more in municipal taxes. They just don’t pay more than they did before the new parking rules came into place.
Imagine complaining about being “poor” while owning 2 cars. Hah!
I’m actually kinda impressed that PM managed to implement this parking system and STILL almost win the election. I was sure that would sink them in Outremont. Gives me hope that maybe someday there will be tolls on all bridges, as there should be.
Ian
Hey don’t get me wrong, I live in zone 27 but pay for private parking in the Hutchison alley. I’m just looking at this issue from a political perspective – Tomlinson was seen as a dogmatic autocrat, and paid for it.
FWIW I think there should be standardized street parking across the island. It would help pay for the infrastructure of electric vehicles, and bigger vehicles like SUVs should pay a heck of a lot more. Given how few opportunities the city has to create revenue this just makes sense… but you can’t just tell a borough “oh well screw you if you don’t have a driveway”. That’s just not how politics works.
mare
People with a driveway should actually pay *more* for parking, and should be charged automatically for a vignette. Their driveway results in a loss of one or two parking spots that are “super reserved” for them, and even get police enforcement.
In the winter most people drag the snow from their driveway onto the street, often resulting in a loss of more parking space because of the heaps of snow, and extra costs for snow removal. (We spent more than 160 million dollars for snow removal in Montreal alone.)Orr
I voted against Tomlinson because of his zero-number-of-improvements for active transport.
The complete opposite of every other PM borough in the city.
You just don’t reward behaviour like that.
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Kate
Smoke in the metro stopped the orange, green and yellow lines Thursday morning. Orange and yellow were back up around 9, and the green line is still down as I post, expected back around 10:15.
Green line service resuming around 10:30.
Uatu
Funny thing. I was caught in the delay this morning and was irritated by yet another breakdown. When service restarted I expected it to be crammed with people like in pre-covid times. maybe there’s less commuters because of the day off, but it was reasonable and you could find a seat with space to spare. I wonder if public transport will ever return to the previous levels or if this is a harbinger of less revenue and ultimately service cuts
Max
I had the misfortune of taking the 485 from the Dorval terminus this afternoon. Damned bus was packed to the gills with students. I mean packed to the point where the driver’s field of view was obscured, all the way to Fairview. I really don’t like travelling during rush hour.
Ian
Try taking the 211 to Sainte Anne every day. You might not get a seat even if you get on at Lionel Groulx. It’s a one hour bus ride.
Max
Tell me about it, Ian. I take the train whenever possible when I have errands to run along that route. The schedule might suck and you can’t open the windows, but at least the trains are almost never full.
Ian
It’s a crying shame the new Ste Anne train station is north of the 40. The current train service might suck but at least it actually lets you off in the village.
Max
Yeah, the location of the REM Sainte-Anne’s terminus is a disaster. With the lack of 20-40 connections between Anciens Combattants and St. Charles it’ll be useful to almost no one. The interchange by the Sainte Anne CPR station is already at capacity, and Chemin Sainte Marie is basically a country road. The Morgan / 20 interchange really ought to be connected through to the business park but I believe the town of Baie d’Urfe is against that as it could wreck the bucolic nature of the residential part of Morgan Road.
I understand the CDP needs to make money with new TODs, but this setup is extraordinarily clumsy.
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Kate
More members of Ensemble are dogpiling on Denis Coderre. This is when Ensemble has to have a hard look at itself and decide what, if anything, the party stands for besides getting Denis Coderre back into a position of power.
Cadichon
A lot is being written this week about the specific strategic mistakes made by Ensemble. But I wonder if a more major shift has happened. From the Tremblay era to Coderre’s election, one could win City hall with a combination of suburban voters and liberal leaning voters in more central neighborhoods. That formula hasn’t worked in 2017 and 2021. I’m not sure it will ever work again.
Kevin
As someone posited a few weeks ago, Balarama Holness was stripping votes from Denis Coderre. In CDN-NDG, Projet’s candidate won the borough mayoralty by about 250 votes.
When turnout is low (4th lowest since WWII, or something like that) every vote counts.
Ian
That “someone” was Coderre himself, but smear jobs aside, it’s important to recognize that a lot of people considered Holness a progressive candidate, especially given his historical ties with Projet – it is just as likely that he stripped votes from PM.
Either way it’s a relief that creep Perez didn’t win after all.
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Kate
Remembrance Day won’t affect everyone, but government offices may be closed. The Gazette says the main ceremony will be at 11 a.m. at Place du Canada but “will not be open to the public” which seems odd because it is, after all, a public square.
Update: La Presse reports on the solemnities.
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Kate
One La Presse writer sees the re-election of Valérie Plante as a referendum on baseball in which the voting populace has turned its thumbs down.
jeather
I am thumbs down on baseball and voted Plante but I really do not think that is the correct takeaway from the result.
dhomas
@jeather For once the media is manufacturing consent in a direction I can agree with. I’ll allow it! 😀
GC
I also don’t think the result demonstrates much, other than that people are apathetic about municipal politics. If it helps us avoid the costly mistake of a baseball stadium, however, win win.
Kate
I thought it was a good example of how people see an event from their personal bias. You’re a sports writer, you see the election result from a sports point of view.
Joey
I thought it was interesting – both Geoff Molson and Stephen Bronfman have to deal with the reality that they hitched their wagons to Coderre’s star… Plante’s landslide victory will require these two guys and their teams to really shift gears,
Kevin
How many fans at Canadiens games lately? /s
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